Gooood Times: California's homeless industrial complex is rolling in the dough
As homelessness proliferates in California while declining everywhere else, someone out in California, Michelle Mears at the California Globe, has decided to do what reporters (used to) do: she followed the money. What she found was the kind of thing you find when you turn over a rock.
The homeless crisis appears to be manufactured for groups and people to profit through social programs and government positions. Those claiming to be able to fix the crisis continue to hold their hands out for state and federal funds — placing their value on how much public funding they can raise and spread around to campaign donors instead of results.
She calls it "a strain for the average California resident but a booming business for others" and names some of the richest profiteers:
What do disgraced congresswoman Katie Hill, Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin, the non-profit PATH developer Thomas Safran, and Executive Director Peter Lynn of the Los Angeles Homeless Service Authority have in common? They are all profiting or have profited from the so-called homeless crisis. There is also a connection among this crew of self-proclaimed homeless advocates of receiving six-figure salaries stemming from ballot initiatives to public donations, campaign contributions, and sweetheart deals.
Mears goes into just how much money has been raised from sales taxes, such as Measure H, raised by the Los Angeles County voters to raise sales taxes to "help" the homeless. Years ago, that measure passed, and now the gravy is flowing. The state's homeless crisis is now the worst in Los Angeles as a result. And the hands of these NGO profiteers are still being held out, the old need for more "funds, funds, funds" despite the good times. "If you build it, they will come."
Mears exposes other scams just like it in her long, detailed report.
Nobody seems to have noticed that shoveling more pork to these greed-heads only makes homelessness worse. They're in the money, they're in the money...as they go rolling along.
Mears notes that salaries are so high among the NGOs that purport to "help" the homeless that one participant, Katie Hill, the throuples enthusiast, was able to buy herself a congressional seat from it. She had been waiting tables as recently as 2010. After becoming an executive at one of these homelessness outfits, she rocketed into the cash. It was always strikingly odd that she lived that cruise-ship swinger lifestyle with her uneducated, unemployable husband, who she says leaked her naked pictures after she dumped him, which in the end forced her resignation from Congress, until you recognize where and how she got her sudden wealth surge. It explains a lot.
The creepy thing is, as this homeless bureaucracy grows, there will be more freaks like Hill getting elected to high office.
Maybe that's why President Trump has started to declare war on California's failures to resolve its homelessness crisis. Trump recently tweeted that he is going to send the feds in to hose out the problem if California doesn't start producing some results.
Mears writes:
The Democrat leaders in California have lashed out against Trump and [Housing and Urban Development secretary] Dr. Ben Carson for months for withholding funds to solve the homeless crisis. Carson, who was sworn in as the 17th Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said he and the Trump Administration want the liberal leaders to show accountability for funds they already have been granted. Millions have been thrown at the homeless crisis with zero progress. In fact, the more money that has been given to the state and cities, the worse the crisis has become.
Carson wrote that the Trump administration will help California but with stipulations, "When California has shown that it is willing to make hard and thoughtful choices to address these issues, the Trump administration stands ready to support its efforts."
The homeless crisis appears to be manufactured for groups and people to profit through social programs and government positions. Those claiming to be able to fix the crisis continue to hold their hands out for state and federal funds — placing their value on how much public funding they can raise and spread around to campaign donors instead of results.
That's a racket. It's a growing racket, it's only making homelessness worse, and thank goodness President Trump is threatening to do something about it if they don't. Homelessness can be very lucrative indeed for the elite nomenklatura.
Hat tip: Issues & Insights.
Image credit: Matt Guernier, screen shot via shareable YouTube.