today marked the one year anniversary of mayor newsom's "care not cash" program. i happened to catch a glimpse of an article on point in the SF examiner while waiting in line at the post office. later, i picked up my own copy. "notably," the examiner's front page advertised a story about "what's on the mayor's iPod." the short story on care not cash was on page four and unfortunately, critiques of the program were given short shrift. newsom is patting himself on the back for cutting cash aid to SF general assistance recipients and is busily lauding the fact that about 800 GA recipients have been placed in permanent housing.
last i heard, GA rolls post-CNC haddrastically declined. however, the actual statistics do not reveal such a glowing picture of people getting housed. rather, the numbers seem to indicate that in the first six months of CNC's implementation, the department of human services actually lost over half of their "active homeless clients.'' meanwhile, only 493 of the 2,497 clients who were on GA in april 2004 had moved into housing as of october 2004. [to check out these numbers click on the link above and open the "care not cash monthly statistical report - march 2005"].
i think a healthy dose of skepticism is in order when it comes to newsom's policy on homelessness. right now i'm too disheartened to say much more. for more critique see this article.
2 comments:
Newsom is obviously a grandstander and a fraud.
well JD (have you ever noted how apropos your initials will be once you can be JD, J.D.?) - he has 2,198 tunes on his iPod and he listens to songs by andrea bocelli, sade, alanis morrisette, linda ronstadt, jerry garcia, prince, ac/dc, and john mellencamp - to mention a few. let's hope he doesn't release a celebrity playlist on itunes anytime soon.
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