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Walsh vows to end homelessness in three years

The Globe reports on Mayor Walsh's plans for "an ambitious multimillion-dollar plan to end homelessness among veterans this year and to end chronic homelessness by 2018."

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This one made me chuckle. We've had homeless people in this city since about September 18, 1630. I'm sure the streets will be clean, there will be rose bushes and bunnies on every corner, schools will be the best, the T will run on time, all kids will be above average, there will be no guns, and only people who are really disabled will have HC parking placards by 2018 as well.

There is nobility in the effort here and I'm sure that there will be positive outcomes for some, but come on, we are going to rid Boston of the mentally ill and chronic homelessness? C'mon Marty. You are smarter than these platitudes and you know it.

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if he really cared, he would have fast tracked new places for the displaced homeless from Long Island, or even fast tracked the bridge or SOMETHING so the homeless wouldn't be displaced. But no, the homeless are still sleeping on streets and have no place to go.

Of course he's too busy with his nose up USOC's butt and wants to make Long Island a shooting range (and then of course sold to highest bidder for condos after) he could care less about the homeless

What a piece of work he is..

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Marty said the Olympic bid wouldn't take ANY of his attention away from running the city and it wouldn't be the slightest distraction.

How's that working out?

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I'm fairly certain they'll reach this goal by just shipping the homeless out of Boston to the Western or Southern portions of the State. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if they send them out of the Commonwealth.

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in 17th century New England.

Aside from that, I see no issue with the Mayor trying to tackle a serious issue that so few in public positions seem to want to talk about and/or address. And it appears he has a plan and I, for one, hope it works. Kudos to him.

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and help pay their keep. Much like orphans were also put to work, even when minors. Ah, the good old days. Now, the alternative is sleeping rough.

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He won't be able to see it through in office.

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He'll walk across the Charles in the summertime.

Don't get me wrong: I'm glad this is moving up the priority list but anyone who's done any real work with the homeless understands it's a complicated problem that's really hard to fix. I sincerely wish him luck!

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You make splashy headlines now, and then when you fail three years later, either no one notices or they just shrug and say, "Ehh, I knew it."

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An existing veterans homeless shelter is on prime real estate, and the solution to veterans homeless problem will involve moving everyone to a less-desirable location, so a friendly developer can grab the prime land.

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Get used to the new New England Shelter For Homeless Veterans new Harrison Avenue at Eustis Street campus.

Combine the existing vets place along with the former School Department property on Court Street and the former Staples space on Court Street and we have developer's dreams. Two subway stops within 750 feet or less and you have the makings of at least two, possibly three hotel / condo developments depending on how the FAR works out.

First "MidTown" and now this. Under all is the land and it is trough feeding time for developers in Dame Boston.

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as someone who has worked with The Center in the near past, I am aware that they are are beginning a major building initiative - a $30 million project that will add 38 new apartments for Veterans and restore the historic elements of the building. So I am going to assume that they are planning to be at their location for a while.

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They are already 2 months into that major renovation.

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If you walk along City Hall Ave (the backside of that building) there's construction crews and signs already doing work. So it coming along.

On a different note when the Ames Hotel opened up next door, they helped the shelter purchase new windows and redo some of the interiors. So I think they are going to be there for a while.

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Well, Victory Programs had just completed a multi million dollar capital overhaul of their facility on Long Island before that went down the toilet. They were planning to be there for a while. The Midget Mayor Marty is like a honey badger on this one.

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I think the plan has a good chance to reduce chronic homelessness by a lot. It's worked in other cities. It's the same way Romneycare was calculated to cost the same as uneven Health Safety Net coverage and improve access to the full gamut of the health system for the previously uninsured.

If the goal is zero, maybe we won't make it, but we can come a hell of a lot closer than we do now.

http://www.thenation.com/article/184017/city-came-simple-solution-homele...

This City Came Up With a Simple Solution to Homelessness: Housing.
Salt Lake City’s Housing First initiative has reduced chronic homelessness by 72 percent. Now other cities are giving it a try.

Salt Lake City crunched the numbers. And the prescription was clear. The city was spending $20,000 per homeless resident per year—funding for policing, arrests, jail time, shelter and emergency services. Homelessness was not going down. Instead, for $7,800 a year through a new program called Housing First, the city could provide a person with an apartment and case management services.

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sounds like a plan straight from LIZZY and NOBAMA. if homeless people want homes they should WORK FOR THEM just like the rest of us 43%!!!! I don't care if it DOES save the government money, it's COMMUNISM

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Your sarcasm and parody is too on the nose, lol. Be careful of who you get upvoted by.

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This program has been cited for a while. Here we have libertarian hand wringing about enabling the indigent matched with fables about the torrent of auslander vagrants pouring in.

Part of the problem is how single person housing like the old school rooming houses have been regulated out of existence while there has been no 'market solution' due to the stampede to make big scores off of luxury housing.

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Let's say this works - 60% people that are we are collectively paying $20k per homeless person to arrest, prosecute, feed, house, clothe - whatever will disappear and we will save that money? Does that mean we need fewer cops, social workers etc. While I think a program like this can be successful to some degree - I'm skeptical that this will really result in savings. This won't result in savings - the powers that be will just spend it on something else - and we'll never be able to figure out what that is. It could be needed infrastructure repairs - or it could just go into some black hole like the Health Connector Website or any of an array of other black holes the city/state have.

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I see your point. Maybe it will be enough to remove a reason that people can cite for the need for bigger budgets and expanded spending. Perhaps that will decrease growth of outlays.

Or maybe the reallocation of staff/resources within a city department will improve quality of life for others served by that department. I know, a rather sunny view of government and not a strong metric...

I do often feel that government spends inordinate time 'responding to fires' rather than taking steps to plan and prevent in the first place. I think this is a step in that right direction.

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Calvin Coolidge was well known for saying that the country was near the point where poverty would be abolished under his policies. A year later the stock market crashed and sent the nation into the great depression which only ended with WWII.

Walsh sounds like Coolidge with stupid statements like that.

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Coolidge wasn't responsible for Smoot-Hawley and Hoover (the polar opposite for Coolidge economic policy wise) was president during the crash. If Silent Cal had run for a second term and won, the Great Depression would have been the same as the depression of 1920-21.

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By throwing another parade.

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And how can this be? For he is the Kwisatz Haderach!

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As someone who lives near Boston Medical Center, I can tell you that whatever is happening now is 10x worse than anything under Menino. I appreciate our "Olympic" Mayor was dealt a bad hand on the Long Island bridge and had to scramble, but Massachusetts Avenue from South Bay all the way to Symphony Hall is a shit show of insanity.

There are people with handmade cardboard signs at every red light intersection in a 1 mile radius looking for change, countless people just wandering down the middle of a main artery (Mass Ave) and darting out into traffic, the #1 and #CT1 bus are a constant battle, with multitudes of people boarding with no means of paying and arguing with the drivers (and other passengers).

I found two people sitting behind my building using it as a shooting gallery yesterday and my neighbors have reported a number of attempted vehicle break-ins. The local convenience stores are overrun with loiterers and don't think about grabbing a quick bite to eat at that McDonald's near the new shelter - you're taking your life in your hands. (I can't even imagine booking at hotel room at either the Roundhouse Suites or Hampton Inn without knowing the character of the neighborhood, it's like a war zone)

While I would often roll my eyes at the "NIMBY" complaints of others, I guess I now feel their pain. Our corner of the South End is under assault and there doesn't seem to be any pro-active police presence to try and keep some semblance of order. (Although the seem to be constantly responding to incidents once they happen).

I welcome his "3 year plan" but by then, the neighborhood will have been destroyed.

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Downtown Crossing is even worse now than it ever was. So many homeless people now.. so many. And they keep popping up.

Even places like North Station (like the article Adam just posed) are getting sketchy.

While I think the Mayah's plan is admirable (but I still think he's a piece of work), homelessness is a very complex issue that is more than just providing a place to go for these people, it's about helping them with every aspect of their lives (jobs, mental health, addiction services, healthcare).

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"countless people just wandering down the middle of a main artery (Mass Ave) and darting out into traffic"

Gee....how long have you lived here?They do that in the fashionable Back Bay also. You should see Comm Ave from Kenmore to Packard's Corner. It's like human Frogger!

And if you want real fun, you can try driving down Causeway Street at rush hour. All kinds of scum running across the lights there...

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I have lived on Worcester Square since 1995 and while I always understood the neighborhood had "character", this is really insane.

And as a car owner for 30 years in Boston, I know that jaywalking and crossing whenever you please seems to be perfectly acceptable all over the city and always has been, but the current conditions on Mass Ave are really out of hand.

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I know what the real estate people say to people who haven't lived around you for 20+ years, and what your 20+ year neighbors say.

I haven't been down there in a while, but everything I've heard lines up with what you're describing. The damage from the economic calamity of 2008-.... is the opposite of the what happened in the late 90s and it is on display all over the City and beyond.

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Used needles on every corner, more people nodding out in bus shelters than actually waiting for a bus, open drug dealing at the same shelters. My landlord had to change the locks on my building's doors owing to people attempting to break the locks. Trash and recycling out for pick up gets destroyed and the residents get ticketed for "improper" storage. We've had multiple broad daylight smash-n-grabs.
It's absolutely insane.

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I feel so bad for people who book at these two "hotels" and aren't familiar with the area. I have driven this area for years and it seems to have gone more downhill since the new Mayor has taken over. I don't think it is all his fault, but the sides of Melnea Cass are now like a tent city. I never had to fight off windshield washers and aggressive panhandlers until this year.

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IMAGE(http://bsc.omg-squee.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/doctor-horrible-hate-the-homeless-ness-problem.jpg)

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Will this encourage all the vagrants of Cambridge, Somerville, etc to march over to Boston to take advantage of this? Any thoughts about making this regional rather than just applicable in Boston city limits, paid by Boston city residents?

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Wellesley, Milton,, Newton, Brookline, and Weston already do their part and deport their homeless to Boston.

The city needs to stop allowing other communities to dispose of their needy in the city instead of caring for them in their home town.

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Wait, are you alleging that there is an affirmative effort made by those towns to "deport" homeless people from those towns (query: are there any such people to "deport" in some of those places?) to Boston?

I don't typically ask for proof of accusations on UHub, and have even at time railed against requests therefor, but for this one, I would be shocked to see even a shred of evidence of anything resembling "deportation".

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What could be more delicious?

We have the shock troops of gentrification clutching pearls and whining because the collateral damage everywhere around them is robbing them of the full measure of status they expect from buying into over priced shitholes.

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Have you not heard? Sure! Homeless people in those towns end up getting free limo rides deporting them to Boston with complementary champagne and caviar. :-)

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Those towns actively refer and bus their indigent residents to Boston social services and don't provide a return trip home. Boston is a dumping ground for many other cities and towns and should be demanding to be reimbursed for carrying the costs of other deadbeat municipalities.

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Is this master plan available for the public to read?

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Yes, the plan was issued today.

http://www.cityofboston.gov/mayor/PDFs/An%20Action%20Plan%20to%20End%20V...(1).pdf

I'm constantly confused as to how our mayor handles things. This is a major - major - proposal, yet it gets below-the-fold treatment - in a press release.

Who's in charge over there??!

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Individuals from all over the country come to Massachusetts for their access to its numerous safety net services. I have had patients from Kentucky, Fla and Nevada given one way tickets when released from jail to come to Boston for health care and other so called amenities.

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Why doesn't he start by saving the middle class and families of the City. Boston is not a City without families and affordable housing.

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I'm sure we can afford to end homelessness and build for the Olympics at the same time, right guys?!?

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...LA handed out tuxedoes to homeless folks to spiff up the city.

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