The Daley administration has proposed a redirection for homeless programs that would create large shelters replacing small, community-based ones.
The plan, done under the guise of “making improve-ments,” would actually make things worse. For instance, homeless families would go to family assessment centers first before being referred to any other programs. The plan calls for three regional sites that would rip homeless families out of their communities and create unnecessary levels of bureaucracy.
The plan says people should receive services that don’t exist on a large scale. The city already tried assessment centers last summer and failed at making them work. The 90-bed facility was filthy and provided poor services.
The plan needs to be withdrawn until an adequate examination of the complicated issues can be done and better developed. Also, homeless issues raised by Dan Alvarez Sr., commissioner of the city’s Department of Human Services, need to be looked at in depth. Finally, the idea of moving to large centrally controlled shelters needs to be abandoned forever.
