Thursday, December 23, 2004

San Francisco's Homeless

Today, The San Francisco Chronicle began a series on Mayor Newsome's new Care Not Cash program for the city's huge homeless population.

The welfare-cutting Care Not Cash, officially titled the County Adult Assistance Program, or CAAP, has been the main vehicle to date for creating those new housing units, and for selecting the homeless people who get to move into them. Premiering on May 3, Care Not Cash cuts the former monthly welfare payments of up to $410 to the homeless to $59 and gives the recipient instead a shelter bed or, preferably, a supportive housing room.

San Francisco's homeless have been receiving checks from the city for as much as $410 per month in addition to any federal and state assistance. And people of SF can't understand why there's such a homeless problem! Other Bay Area cities have similar cash programs as well, so it's not uncommon for some to collect checks from more than one municipality. Our great mass transit system makes it easy and inexpensive to get from city to city to collect their checks. The weather's nice to boot. It's a great place to be homeless.




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