Posted: January 26, 2005

The stupidity of unemployment

The New York Times reports today that the US "federal budget deficit was expected to rise this year to $427 billion, a figure that includes a new request from President Bush to help pay for the war in Iraq ... The White House's announcement makes it the fourth straight year in which the budget deficit was expected to grow ... " I don't see a problem with the increase. I think the US federal deficit is actually still too small as a percentage of GDP, given the degree of labour underutilisation that exists in that country and the failing public infrastructure. But we might have a useful debate about how it should be spent and I would think the introduction of a Job Guarantee which would provide anyone who can work a minimum income job (including specialised support structures to allow the mentally ill to enjoy labour force participation where possible) should be the top priority. Then grants to states and cities to ensure all these workers have adequate housing and education might follow a close second. Prosecuting the invasion of Iraq would not be on my list of priorities.

In this context, I read the Associated Press report today that "a major New York city subway line ... has been knocked out of service and another, the A line, severely limited, possibly for years ..." Evidently, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority which runs the subway has known for 20 years that its 'signaling system was obsolete or unreliable' but chose not to invest in upgrades. The New York Times reported today that there were two fatal crashes, in 1991 and 1995 and the enquiries "recommended improvements in the signal system ... [and now] ... The limits of the system were brought into focus on Sunday afternoon when a Depression-era signal relay room, one of dozens distributed throughout the 722-mile subway network, was destroyed in an underground fire north of the station on Chambers Street that serves the A and C lines."

So what might have caused the fire? The disruption to America's largest subway system (4.5 million commuters daily use it) followed extremely bad weather (cold blizzards) and speculation is that the fire began in a shopping trolley used by a homeless man to store his meagre possessions. The fire is thought to have been the result of the person trying to keep warm in his 'subway home'.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced that it might take up to 5 years to fully repair the damage. After the public outrage from politicians and severely disadvantaged commuters who rely on the subway, the MTA recanted and said the full service would be restored in about nine months. Mayor Mayor Michael Bloomberg was reported as saying "Why does it look like it's going to take so long to repair the damage? ... We built the Empire State Building in a year." Given the speculation, Bloomberg also said that the fire "looks like it was arson" and questioned the adequacy of the security. The metro is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and is a popular haven for the homeless.

The NY Times editorial said that "The subway is ... no place for the homeless, and it's a sign of the system's shaky state that hundreds of people have been allowed to live in its grapevine of tunnels and passageways. It is not safe for them and, as Sunday's fire makes clear, it is not safe for the millions who ride through those tunnels every single day. The city's police and homeless outreach programs need to be mobilized right away."

However, the major issue in the public debate today seems to be the inconvenience caused to the commuters and the lack of maintenance spending by the City. What about the 'cause of the fire'! Not on the radar! Well it is but in this way. You have to wonder! The same Mayor Bloomberg has unveiled a new city initiative, which according to the US Coalition for the Homeless is a "dangerous plan to deny shelter to many homeless children and their families ... [and say that the] ... The Mayor's plan represents one of the most severe attacks in years on the right to shelter for homeless New Yorkers." To see their complete briefing paper click HERE.

The proposed new rules will deny shelter to homeless children and families whom the City's Department of Homeless Services (DHS) claims are 'ineligible' and the ban would be permanent, unless overturned by a State appeals hearing officer. At present, there are thousands of homeless families in New York each year who are deemed 'ineligible' by DHS. These families are forced through a labyrinth of bureaucracy where their ineligibility status is often nothing to do with the availability of other housing but "due to missing or incomplete paperwork (for example, the absence of a child's birth certificate, or incomplete information about a family's recent housing history)." The Coalition for Homeless also says that the DHS assessment process is plagued by "the enormously high incidence of mistakes, errors, and poor decisions". These failures are evidenced by the "presence of numerous court orders prohibiting the City from denying shelter based on incomplete or mistaken eligibility reviews." I immediately thought of the 'breaching tribunals' we use in this country to 'punish' the unemployed.

These errors threaten "the health and safety of children and their parents. In many cases, women fleeing domestic violence have been told to return to the homes of batterers, or children have been told to return to homes where they were abused. In many other cases, DHS investigators have insisted that families can reside in apartments with severe health hazards or that are extremely overcrowded." Official DHS data also shows that 35 percent of those families ultimately deemed eligible had to file two or more applications, and 17 percent (one of every six families ultimately found eligible for shelter) had to file three or more applications. Under the proposed new rules, instead of receiving emergency shelter placements while appealing, these families would be denied shelter entirely.

Homelessness is a huge problem in New York (and all American cities). In 2004, a record number of homeless New Yorkers sought shelter. In October 2004 some 36,900 homeless men, women, and children were sleeping each night in the New York City shelter system, including 15,500 children, 12,900 adult family members, and 8,500 single adults. Thousands more sleep on city streets, park benches, and subway trains. Around 75 per cent of street sleepers in New York suffer from chronic mental illness. For current data on the homeless situation in New York click HERE.

While cost is not an issue when the budget deficit is too small, it remains the incredible fact is that permanent housing for homeless families and individuals costs less than shelter and other emergency care. The cost of sheltering a homeless family in the New York City Shelter system is $36,000 per year, while the cost of shelter for a homeless individual is $23,000 per year. In contrast, a supportive housing apartment with services costs as little as $12,500 per year, and rental assistance with support services for a family costs as little as $8,900 per year.

I wonder why this is not the major headlines in the US papers today. A Job Guarantee and adequate housing would have prevented this 'inconvenience' for commuters in the first place.

Blog entry posted by bill