Charlotte is getting a good infusion of federal stimulus dollars soon - almost $2 million! To get it the city had to amend its consolidated plan based on fifty plus pages of federal regulations (or guidance if you like euphemisms). Not a small undertaking to get a relatively small amount of money. I'm not bemoaning an extra $2 million to help homeless families and individuals in Charlotte. In addition to getting the money, this process has been a wonderful collaborative effort between local government and nonprofit service providers. My hat's off to Stan Wilson with the City for asking service providers for their input in developing Project Hope. And my hat's off to Crisis Assistance Ministry for agreeing to administer the funds. I've read the regulations and managing this program will be a bear. In the end, Project Hope will help a hundred or so homeless families and individuals obtain housing and have a real chance to remain housed. That's great news! Realistically, however, it's 100 out of 6,000 who are experiencing homelessness in Charlotte. This is where I wish we could call the program a Clunker.
The federal government proved through the Cash for Clunkers program that it could release significant money fast to address an issue important to the country. In fact, when the first allotment of Clunker money ran out fast, the government quickly released more money. The beauty in this program was how simple, relative to government bureaucracy of course, that it was to implement. Too bad stimulus money to help the homeless wasn't housed in this part of the federal government. Don't get me wrong, standards and outcomes are important; but stimulus money was supposed to be immediate help for pressing problems during economic hardship. Project Hope has been on the drawing board for several months - not the fault of anyone locally, it's just that the federal regulations and process has been very time consuming.
I guess I'm flabbergasted that we, as a nation, are more concerned with helping people buy new cars than get a roof over their heads. Cash for Clunkers helped middle and upper class Americans get into luxury cars while thousands of homeless Americans continue to sleep in cars that are too old to even qualify for Cash for Clunkers!
Anyway, I'm excited about Project Hope - it will be good for many experiencing homelessness in Charlotte - it was a great collaborative effort on a scale never attempted by local government and homeless service providers - and hopefully it will raise more awareness about the homeless crisis Charlotte is experiencing. If only we could get the program classified a Clunker then maybe we could get even more to help more - fast!
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