HUD, from page 10
homeless but for other homeless i f
populations, including homeless families.
This administration intends to. have more
engagement and collaboration through the
USICH with federal agencies to solve
homelessness.
T.T.: While many people experiencing
homelessness live in city streets or in
emergency shelters, countless others spend their,
nights in the homes of friends and family, in
campgrounds, or in low-rent motels. How will
this administration reach out and provide
needed services to those households?
Under The Bridge
By A nn Preston-Paris
Under the bridge, if I’m especially lucky,
I might come across a fire to warm, the cement I live on.
I might imagine, its heat melting the hard frigid block
into a soft warm mattress.
I’d do the devil a deal to taste warmth and comfort again,
even for just one night. But, no, I take that back.
One night would never be enought to fill me up.
It’d ,be like an almost climax during sex,.
There you are, strung up, high, and stranded.
I’d weave this one night into one thousand^
and one story after story.
After dream, after delusion.
To be warm and leave a safe place to lay my head.
Better than food,'sex, or drug. “
And só I wander on passing tents and boxes on and on?
I see people eating from cans
children and dogs closing in to share the* meal.
Cats calmly perched on laps and shoulders.
Whats for them?
Some lovely sardines maybe, sans oil,
or a can of “people’’ tuna? Yum!
Ño one’s cooking tonight it seems.
I make my way around ourvillage of the poor
Norte Ville des paures.
It’s dark and so quiet out.
Not a whisper of any car on thé freeway next door.
Suddenly a small burst of red-orange!
There’s an 11 oz coffee can in front of me next to the curb;
flames are reaching from it.
Tips flickering up and down like dancers
practicing jumps in place
and a group of men pressed close are sitting around the fire
warming their freeze-burned hands- they aré; telling stories^
Seeing them, I might dream of a room
in a sixteenth century English hotel
Its dwellers gathered in front of thefire
entertaining themselves
of a mean winter’s night while minstrels pass on the way
I side to finer places of welcome and rest.
I join these modern-day men on thé damp grass
and listen to their tales of hunger, cold, aches, and pain;
of wondér, hope and warmth that began
with the flick of a lighter
or a strike of a match.
S.D.: People are often forced to live with
family and friends because they can’t find an
affordable home to re n t This is why i t i?
critical that we do everything we can to |
stimulate the production of affordable rental
housing. The Recovery Act’s Homeless
Prévention and Rapid Re housing Program
will help thousands of families to avoid
homelessness by offering moving expenses^
security deposits and temporary rental
assistance. HtID is making significant
contributions toward the capitalneeds of
local housing authorities so they, in turn,
can sérve more families. And we’re
reaffirming HUD’s support for our voucher
programs by proposing nearly $18 billion in
the 2010 budget, an increase of $1.8 billion
over current levels. It’s clear that President
Obama is intent oh making sure that lower-
income families, and specifically those at
higher risk of homelessness, must-not be
forgotten as we seek to put this nation back
on the path of sustainable economic growth.
'T.T.: Homelessness is not just à housing
issue, of course, but an issue pertaining also
to health care, incomes, civil rights, education,
jobs. In what ways do you, plan on
coordinating your efforts at HUD with the -
efforts o f the other departments in combating
homelessness?
S. D.: To solve homelessness requires not
just housing but access to an array of
supports. The sèrvices by agencies such as
the U.S. departments of Health and Human
Services, Labor, and Education are
absolutely vital to help ensure that once
persons are housed they have the services
they need to become stably housed and
improve their lives through éducation and
employment. Clearly the U.S. Interagency
Council on Homelessness will be playing a
key role in coordinating government
agencies on the issue.
T.T.: Why do you believe it is important for
the government to play a role in providing and
attaining affordable housing in this country?
Do you believe that the federal government can
really make a difference in preventing and
ending homelessness?
S.D.: The resources of the federal
government can help as no other entity can,
either through direct investment, tax
credits, hond financing or a combination of
th e se to o ls.B u t government can’t dti iT*^*
T. T.: During your years as commissioner o f alone. The only reason we were so
the. New York City Department o f Housing
-•successful in New York was because we
marshaled the combined resources of a
Preservation and Development, what role did
you play in providing housing resources for the number of public and private players. I also
think we have to change our general
city's homeless population? What lessons did
you learn from that experience that will inform approach to. Affordable housing and
endeavor to create sustainable communities
your work as HUD Secretary? > ; ’
that are transit-Oriented and energy
efficient. That’s why HUD is working
S. D.: In one of the most expensive
closely with the departments'of
housing markets in the country, we were
Transportation, Energy, Labor and
able to make significant progress toward
Education to cultivate a more
building and preserving 165,000 units of
comprehensive and holistic approach to
affordablé housing, the largest municipal
development We just have to think smarter
affordable housing plan in the nation’s
about how we build the communities of
history. One of my proudest achievements
tomorrow.
inNew. York was the New York/Nèw York
In the same way, I think the federal
III, a $1 billion agreement between the
government tan make a real difference in
state and the city to finance and develop
preventing homelessness as we work to end
9,000 new units of supportive housing in
homelessness for those experiencing long
New York City. The lessons I learned are
term or chronic homelessness. As you
that if you hope to develop affordable
know, there has been a shift in how the
housing, you have to be nimble and you
federal government, as well as state and
have to gatheir a collection of partners to
local communities, in how we confront
help, make it happen.
chronic homelessness. All across the i
country, you’re seeing the creation of
T. T.: How did you become involved in the
thousands of new permanent supportive
issues of homelessness and lowlncome
bousing units and a noticeable decrease in
housing?
’
our reliance on emergencyshelters. I
anticipate that we will continue to see this
S.D.: As an 11-year-old, I was sitting in ,
paradigm shift in the years to come.
Yankee Stadium during Game 2 of the 1977
World Series when Howard Cosell uttered
his famous words: “Ladies and gentlemen,
Dynamic
Drupal
customization
training
media
Shome
the Bronx is burning.” The Bronx burning
on the city skyline was just one of the many
visible signs that government institutions
and urban programs were failing. P eo p le"
were asking if our cities weredead, and
American families moved but of urban cores
to the suburbs in record numbers. It was a '
frightening and eye-opening time to live in
New York. But it was a time that also
sparked a deep interest in me, an interest in
how I could play a-part in changing the
policies that shaped the urban landscape
and the built environment around me I k
remember very vividly walking oh my way to
school in the morning and seeingpeople
sleeping on the
streets. I remember
constantly asking
myself why.-Why was
The world like this?
And what can I do to
It's now time to use that
change it? I worked
for a community ’
same process and see what
housing developer in
can
be done not just for the
New York City after
studying public policy chronically homeless but for
and architecture in
other homeless populations,
graduate school. Then including homeless families.
one of my professors
from graduate school
asked me to join him
at HUD in the Clinton
administratibn.
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