a letter to the mayor of nyc
Feb. 28th, 2005 08:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rktin honor of starofthecircus's fund rasing campaign, i bring you this "letter".
and, to be honest, this "letter" has been sitting on my hard drive since last year. the entire situation makes me quite rageful. because i work in a contracted homeless shelter and have a per diem gig at a domestic violence shelter, i see the effects live and in person regularly.
it's fucking depressing. and i have NO idea how those who make the decisions sleep at night. THE SYSTEM SUCKS!
but what do i know? like i said, i just work there.
dear mayor bloomberg:
i'm very confused.
i'm confused about your new housing plan for the homeless. i suppose it's supposed to sound lovely.
i must be foolish, because i'm confused why you blatantly chose to penalize the majority by eliminating the housing priorities given to the homeless and survivors of domestic violence, all because a minority were "abusing" a very abusive system. or was it that you were afraid we were becoming too socialized, giving people places to live and all? we can't have that now, can we? that makes sense.
though, quite frankly, i'm confused why you chose to go about initializing this process before it even received all the necessary approvals or had all the i's dotted and t's crossed. (you passed it mid-november, even though the state didn't give the go-ahead until december. what was that about?)
so, yeah, i'm confused by a lot of things, obviously. but housing stability plus is just SO awesome.
hey, i mean, i guess it looks like domestic violence is going down. after all, there are fewer calls being placed to the domestic violence hotline . i'm sure that has nothing to do with the uncertainty potential callers might feel if their choices are A) being beaten by someone "close" to them and keeping a roof over their/families' head/s or B) leaving the abuse with no guarantee of a stable shelter environment only to return to even more intense abuse. obviously, it must be because there's less violence happening!
i also love how your plan penalizes those who work. everybody knows that those on welfare are lazy and just love sitting around doing nothing. congratulations on a housing plan that is currently unavailable to those who work or start working and "make too much" to receive welfare! (hey, $9/ hr for a family of 3 is MORE than enough to get by in this city!) pure genius perpetuating stereotypes like that! bonus points for setting up unrealistic rental guidelines that can be increased after 2 years, (even though the program is supposed to last for 5 and the program doesn't cover for those rent increases), so that we can have even MORE homeless recidivism than we do now. OMG, i can't wait for the media coverage of an over-crowded EAU with all kinds of shots of homeless folks (of colour, since that's the only type the media like to show) costing us tax dollars.
did i mention yet how well i think it's going to work for families whose public assistance cases get closed because someone/somewhere in their public assistance center fucked up and information wasn't received or entered properly? OMG, expecting the family to come up with that extra money that wasn't paid because their "P-A" case was closed - WoW! you are so compassionate. you, mayor, are my american idol!
ok, i'm sure you have far too many other things to do with your time than, say, work to make everyone's rents affordable. or increase the minimum wage. or, even, i don't know, make welfare centers actually work by staffing them well so that the place's aren't understaffed. that's not your fault. you've been busy trying to build a stadium and "lure the olympics to nyc, and going after the gay.
sincerely,
me
PS congratulations on your 'victory'
all links open to a new page
x-posted
and, to be honest, this "letter" has been sitting on my hard drive since last year. the entire situation makes me quite rageful. because i work in a contracted homeless shelter and have a per diem gig at a domestic violence shelter, i see the effects live and in person regularly.
it's fucking depressing. and i have NO idea how those who make the decisions sleep at night. THE SYSTEM SUCKS!
but what do i know? like i said, i just work there.
dear mayor bloomberg:
i'm very confused.
i'm confused about your new housing plan for the homeless. i suppose it's supposed to sound lovely.
i must be foolish, because i'm confused why you blatantly chose to penalize the majority by eliminating the housing priorities given to the homeless and survivors of domestic violence, all because a minority were "abusing" a very abusive system. or was it that you were afraid we were becoming too socialized, giving people places to live and all? we can't have that now, can we? that makes sense.
though, quite frankly, i'm confused why you chose to go about initializing this process before it even received all the necessary approvals or had all the i's dotted and t's crossed. (you passed it mid-november, even though the state didn't give the go-ahead until december. what was that about?)
so, yeah, i'm confused by a lot of things, obviously. but housing stability plus is just SO awesome.
hey, i mean, i guess it looks like domestic violence is going down. after all, there are fewer calls being placed to the domestic violence hotline . i'm sure that has nothing to do with the uncertainty potential callers might feel if their choices are A) being beaten by someone "close" to them and keeping a roof over their/families' head/s or B) leaving the abuse with no guarantee of a stable shelter environment only to return to even more intense abuse. obviously, it must be because there's less violence happening!
i also love how your plan penalizes those who work. everybody knows that those on welfare are lazy and just love sitting around doing nothing. congratulations on a housing plan that is currently unavailable to those who work or start working and "make too much" to receive welfare! (hey, $9/ hr for a family of 3 is MORE than enough to get by in this city!) pure genius perpetuating stereotypes like that! bonus points for setting up unrealistic rental guidelines that can be increased after 2 years, (even though the program is supposed to last for 5 and the program doesn't cover for those rent increases), so that we can have even MORE homeless recidivism than we do now. OMG, i can't wait for the media coverage of an over-crowded EAU with all kinds of shots of homeless folks (of colour, since that's the only type the media like to show) costing us tax dollars.
did i mention yet how well i think it's going to work for families whose public assistance cases get closed because someone/somewhere in their public assistance center fucked up and information wasn't received or entered properly? OMG, expecting the family to come up with that extra money that wasn't paid because their "P-A" case was closed - WoW! you are so compassionate. you, mayor, are my american idol!
ok, i'm sure you have far too many other things to do with your time than, say, work to make everyone's rents affordable. or increase the minimum wage. or, even, i don't know, make welfare centers actually work by staffing them well so that the place's aren't understaffed. that's not your fault. you've been busy trying to build a stadium and "lure the olympics to nyc, and going after the gay.
sincerely,
me
PS congratulations on your 'victory'
all links open to a new page
x-posted
