We Get What We Don't Pay For

The on-going squabble about the new Homeless Assistance Center (HCA) here in Dallas would be comical if it weren't so darned exasperating and tragic.

What I find really interesting are the persistent tirades from business owners downtown who play like Chicken Little, assuring us that the presence of a growing number of the homeless in downtown Dallas is the equivalent of a falling sky.

A number of these angry prophets of doom bought vacant buildings on the cheap and are now developing mostly upscale apartments for wealthy consumers who find downtown hip.

Don't misunderstand me here.

I am proud these developers are working downtown. May their tribe increase!

Some are even including "affordable" units in their developments thanks to the requirements imposed by some of the public funds they secured to make the deals work. Never mind that the working definition of affordable as established by HUD is still far too expensive for millions of Americans and thousands of Dallasites.

Still, their work is vital to the renewal of our city's core.

What gets me about the protests of these downtown property owners over the homeless is their apparent disgust that borders at times on surprise that the problem won't just go away or somehow be handled by city leaders.

What else should we expect here in Dallas and across the nation when it comes to the swelling numbers of the homeless?

We are getting exactly what our public policy over the last twenty-five years guaranteed would happen.

Think about it.

Drastic cuts in funds for mental health services have resulted in more mentally ill persons "residing" on our streets.

The absence of truly reforming resources inside our prisons, including mental health services, returns hundreds of people annually to our city without a life plan, without a home and without much hope.

Funding has all but evaporated for addiction and substance abuse treatment.

State and national housing policy has failed to produce the needed housing units for low-income persons. Right now public policy is cutting back on housing options and development for those at the very bottom. As a result, we should only expect more homeless persons to show up downtown in the next few years.

Health care access is not improving. Many people end up on the street following major illness after exhausting the few resources they may have had prior to getting sick.

Our legislature can't even agree on a school funding bill to pay for public education in the state. And we continue to be shocked and dismayed at the drop out rate. Come on. Please.

Employment rates keep creeping up, but the wages keep falling in terms of real dollar values.

The gap between rich and poor widens. People fall off into the abyss of the street.

And the best we can do is debate about "how to get 'em out of downtown."

It is time we all woke up and realized how penny wise and pound foolish our current political intelligence actually is.

We are getting today exactly what we don't pay for.