RUSH: This amazing story on homelessness in Washington, DC. It’s from McClatchy: ‘Homelessness Grows in Shadow of White House.’ I saw this, it’s yesterday. I was stunned! You’ve got a Democrat in the White House, and they write this: ‘Homelessness Grows in Shadow of White House.’ I got some excerpts here, some of the comments below from these poor people. Listen to this: ”Indications are that homelessness is going up,’ said Nan Roman, the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.’ Now, she still has a job. Who do you think pays her? No, no, no. I’m serious. You’ve got something out there called the National Alliance to End Homelessness. I’m reminded of the Sam Kinison bit with Sally Struthers. Sally Struthers would go over to Africa and she’d do these TV commercials, ‘Won’t you please care? It just takes a dollar. Look at these poor kids, they’re starving, they’re starving!’ You’ve got little insects flying up their noses, and Sam Kinison says, ‘Well, feed ’em! You didn’t go over there without lunch, give them your sandwich.’ It’s a great point. What does a person at the National Alliance to End Homelessness do? Who pays this person? Probably a 501(c)(3) or whatever donation, but she’s living off of homelessness.
While more and more people are becoming homeless, the woman that runs the National Alliance to End Homelessness still works, still has a gig. She’s failing, yet she’s become a source here in the story. ‘Indications are that homelessness is going up. Largely it’s because of increased unemployment, housing costs and poverty.’ That’s what Nan Roman said. Well, now, wait a minute, increases in unemployment? What about all those jobs Obama saved? Where are all those jobs that Obama saved? How come there could be a rising homelessness tide with Obama saving all these jobs? Housing costs, poverty? I thought we fixed poverty with the war on poverty. Roman said — we’re still sticking with her, Nan Roman, president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness: ‘The prior years, the numbers had been going downward,’ meaning the Bush administration. ‘The prior years, the numbers had been going downward. The fact that it flattened out is not promising. It’s a little alarming that our progress is reversing so quickly.’
Yeah, like the nine months of the Obama administration, January of 2009. How is that hope and change working out for the homeless? ‘At the Virginia Williams Family Resource Center in Northeast Washington, the waiting room is crowded with young women holding their babies, and older moms weary from the search for a place to get out of the heat and rest. Sometimes they’ve come from other states for help in the nation’s capital. However, resources are decentralized and shelter space is shrinking, advocates say, and the local homeless problem is inflated by people from neighboring Maryland and Virginia. ‘Everybody thinks this is the nation’s capital and they should be able to come and change their lives,’ said Omega Butler, the director of the center.’ How silly. How silly. That only works for the Democrats in Congress. They arrive middle class, they end up millionaires: Biden, Rahm Emanuel, John Conyers, Harry Reid, Obama, and it goes on and on. It’s just the most amazing thing to see a story on how rotten the homeless problem is in Washington with Obama in the White House and the director of this homeless center saying it’s really gotten bad the last nine months.
Here’s another one: ‘Kargbo pulled out a small plastic bag and riffled through it before laying out her daughters’ birth certificates, her certificate of guardianship for her niece, her ID, her daughter’s college acceptance letter and Social Security cards. A friend she’d stayed with at the beginning of her struggles allowed her to list the address on her daughter’s application as her own. She allowed it only that one time. ‘I begged her,’ Kargbo said. Leake photocopied the documents. ‘Do you have family in Arizona that could help?’ Leake asked. ‘Do you know how long and how far and how expensive it is to get there?’ Kargbo replied. ‘It’s not an option.” But it is. You don’t have to go from Washington to Arizona. Go from Washington to New York and they’ll pay for you to take a one-way trip to Arizona.
People don’t know what cities are doing here. They’re going to the wrong place. If you want to go to Arizona and you’re homeless, listen to me, if you’re homeless, right now and you want to go to Arizona you gotta get to New York fast and when you get there you gotta advertise, ‘Hi, I’m homeless! Hi I’m homeless!’ Wave your arms, go down to Times Square, Eighth Avenue, plenty of places to go. Go to the Port Authority bus station, ‘Hi I’m homeless,’ and somebody will come along in the nick of time before you know it and give you a one-way ticket to Arizona. As long as you can say you got family there and of course you’ve got the fake ID here you just admitted having, so as long as you’ve got family in Arizona or say you do the mayor of New York will put you on a bus or on a plane to Arizona and you’ll get there.