Do Mayors Know About Poverty?

UPDATE: Today I saw a news story about a policy at a day center for homeless persons in Grand Junction, CO, which bars families with children. Will you please look at the comments at the end of this post and register your dismay with the GJ mayor? Thanks! Diane

I hate this time of year with its "mood-enhancing" holiday music and the annual US Mayors Conference report on their survey of hunger and homelessness. Tired/overworked journalists glean a few "facts" from the reality-deficient report and create fantasy stories about reported decreases in homelessness. Deck the halls, people looking for good news believe them.

My skepticism is based on experience. This last February I met with Las Cruces, NM, Mayor Ken Miyagishima, by all accounts a decent person, who had no idea the one family shelter in the city was closed for over 18 months. He was shocked, but that hasn't changed the reality for families in LC. The LC Bulletin reports:

“In these economic times, we are finding more and more homeless people that need at least one good meal a day,” said El Caldito board member Rebecca McNair. “There are around 400 to 500 homeless families in our area...."

Meals are good. Shelter would be even better. A variety of appropriate housing solutions, and services, would be best, but Las Cruces isn't there yet. And this is only one "ordinary" city I've visited in the past 4+ years of my HEAR US travels. I can assure you that things are the same, or worse, in many more cities and towns of all sizes.

One contributor to increased family homelessness is last century's shredding of the dysfunctional welfare system. We nay-sayers pointed out that dismantling without bolstering life-sustaining supports would cause havoc for families. Bipartisan anti-welfare sentiments won, and the booming economy (remember that?) hid the realities of families swirling in the vortex of poverty, until now.

Author/social critic Barbara Ehrenreich and policy wonk Peter Edelman recently issued a damning assessment of our nation's safety net:

So when the Great Recession came along, the government safety net for families with children was in tatters. The United States was no more prepared for massive unemployment than New Orleans had been prepared for its levees to break.

Is the busy Obama administration addressing this crisis? I'd suspect not, because impoverished families haven't hit the level of importance of, um, turkey pardons.

So, my recommendation is to have ordinary people make a fuss on their local level. Make the wheel squeak by throwing some sand in the hub of your mayor's office. If mayors become aware of local dismay about the dearth of resources for families (and individuals), they can start rattling up the food chain, all the way to the White House.

My offer to Mayor Ken still stands--I'll do a presentation to the Mayors Conference on this topic.

Seems to me it's time for ordinary people to ask simple questions of their mayors. Here's the link for finding contact info for your city's mayor. Ask about homeless families in your community--where they will be spending the holidays (and beyond), and ask where the Mayor will be spending the holidays. My guess is they'll be miles apart.

photos by the author