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June 8, 2006 President Bush has suffered a second term plagued with setbacks: sagging poll numbers, increasing voter discontent with the War in Iraq, and a stalled Social Security plan. But hidden as a bottom corner story on the front page of the June 7 New York Times is a well-deserved chronicle of the success of real compassionate conservatism. Nestled away in Washington is the Interagency Council on Homelessness, and as the Times notes, the office was dormant for several years before Philip Mangano took over the post with truly compassionate conservative ideas. Democrats who have grown accustomed to slamming every Bush program might need to take a step back and analyze what has become a very effective melding of government oversight and private industry. Mangano’s unique idea involves finding permanent housing for the “chronically homeless” – the roughly 200,000 out of 750,000 homeless who shift from shelter to shelter and clinic to clinic, ultimately ending up back on the streets. These homeless have long been seen as a problem with no solution, but Mangano’s ICH has joined with private industry and state governments – 219 as of June – to create bare-bones apartment complexes for the chronic homeless. So what keeps the homeless from simply leeching off the government detoxification and health care programs available when they move in? Simple: private industry provides the housing and services in exchange for tax credits while the government insures that these once hopeless cases are applying for jobs or job training. Before the apartment program, the average cost of treating a chronic homeless person, on average, was $770,000. Joining with private corporations, the cost is reduced to $15,000 per year. Similarly, with many chronic homeless consolidated in one complex of efficiency apartments instead of spread throughout a city in various shelters, the medical care and job training specialists can achieve much more in much less time. Keeping costs down through agreements with private organizations, the potential bureaucratic mess of a big government program is limited by the efficiency of the private sector. But what about the most important part of the program: the results? After five years of Mangano’s housing program, the population of chronic homeless in Philadelphia has dropped 60 percent. San Francisco has seen a nearly 30 percent drop in two years, and Dallas is boasting similar results. The unlikely embrace of compassionate conservatism to attack what has always been viewed as a “liberal” issue has met with surprisingly positive results. With the chronic homeless centered in one location and given easy access to medical, psychological and vocational attention, the entire problem of locating a specific case in a sea of shelters is eliminated. By limiting the stretch of government in dealing with the problem – and lowering costs as a result – is a win-win situation for the community. The program also provides something greater than economic efficiency: hope to the hopeless. What is more American than that? How much of the credit for this program goes to President Bush is a matter for debate. The majority of any accolades must accordingly go to Philip Mangano, who turned a vacant government office into an effective tool to combat homelessness. City and state government officials, so long burdened by the economic and logistical problems related to homelessness also deserve a pat on the back for sticking to an unsure plan until it paid off with interest. Through this program a small government agency has taken a daring step: it had an original idea in a city that quashes innovation as it does all forms of true progress. In the end, Congress will not be able to claim credit for the reduction in chronic homelessness because they have strenuously avoided the subject in favor of gay marriage. The solution, as usual, came from the little guy. ------------ About the author: Max Burns is a 19-year-old moderate Democrat from Indianapolis. He has been moved from the Hoosier Heartland to the moral void that is Washington D.C. to study Government & International Politics at George Mason University. He is also the author of the fantasy novel Alcardia. Email: mburns6@gmu.edu Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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