Friday, March 13, 2009

Tough Times


The harshness of the economic meltdown crushes new families.

More of us are closer to the edge than we want to admit.

Take a look here.

Or, read this report.


.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

There has been some interesting dialog happening at Pegasus News for several days now regarding tent cities and homelessness in Dallas.

http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2009/mar/09/it-time-tent-city-dallas/

Larry James said...

Anon 10:14, I saw that debate. A serious, sustainable solution to chronic homelessness is available in the development of permanent supportive housing. Of course, that assumes that there is a development community interested in producing these units, a community willing to allow them to be built/developed and a city ready to assist with some of the costs and in obtaining the other public dollars available for the purpose. The Dallas City Council has voted "yes" to this idea in abstract as a policy going forward. And, they have assisted our CDC with CityWalk@Akard, under development. Now, we will see if they back up their positive, enlightened rhetoric with action, even when they face stiff opposition from others.

Anonymous said...

Well said Larry.

Anonymous said...

Larry, I agree with your idea of permanent supportive housing, and am in high favor of making it a reality in Dallas. However, you were quoted in the paper as saying that you weren't going to move forward with this if the citizens didn't want it. Yes, it's a whole lot of scared NIMBYists. No, it's not the best attitude or the most forward thinking response. But it seems like you said what you thought the paper and public wanted to hear - we're not trying to force anything - in hopes that it would change their minds. It is unfair for you to say the city should have pushed it through when you said yourself that you weren't trying to do that.

Maybe there are things I'm not seeing, and maybe you were misquoted. I'm not pretending to have the whole story. But that's what I'm seeing and hearing.

Larry James said...

Anon 1:53, just because I'm not playing in this particular game any longer--having been "pulled" from the action!--doesn't mean I can't root for my team!

I still have a point of view about this key community need. Encouraging the city to do the right thing, from my perspective, doesn't seem to in any way to go against my statement.