The Advocate
Richard Blassberg

Have We Taken Leave Of Our Senses Altogether?

Could it be possible that the Westchester County Department of Social Services is actually paying out nearly $44,000 per person, per year, to house single, homeless, individuals in a White Plains shelter known as Open Arms, where drug traffic is widespread, people sleep in dormitory accommodations, and the safety of one’s
person and property are not exactly guaranteed? Several weeks ago The Westchester Guardian exposed the fact that the County Homeless Shelter on the Valhalla Campus was giving $155 per month to homeless residents who were entitled to three meals a day at the shelter, and who had neither the equipment nor the opportunity to store or prepare raw foods, the only food for which food stamp money can be lawfully spent.

Of course, the misappropriation of those funds, nearly $2,000 per resident, per year, was merely the ‘tip of the iceberg,’ as they say. The real issue involved the fact that food stamp money was most often discounted by recipients, seeking cash for drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes. Within 24 hours of an investigative visit to the Valhalla site by The Guardian, several of the more notorious “druggies” were kicked out of the shelter and sent to Open
Arms and other shelters throughout Westchester. However, the food allowance, and its waste on contraband, is but one small part of the overall squandering of taxpayer funds in the effort to warehouse a segment of the population few people seriously give a damn about.

Consider the fact that the County Of Westchester is willing to pay $3,447 a month to Open Arms, a shelter in downtown White Plains, where actively using, drug addicted, individuals, with ongoing criminal issues have been housed, dormitory-style, for many years. Add that housing allowance to personal spending money, and the food stamp allowance, and we’re shelling out more than $3,600 per month.

For $2,400 a month that same person can be housed in the same city, White Plains, at the Esplanade Hotel, in a lovely studio, or for Have We Taken Leave Of Our Senses Altogether? $3,000 in a one bedroom suite, either one including a complimentary breakfast. And, the hotel suites have refrigerators and stovetops so that the homeless individuals receiving food stamp money can actually spend those funds on raw food that can be stored and prepared and consumed as intended under the law. Imagine, for less money than we are now spending on our single homeless to live in unsafe, crime-ridden environments, they could be housed in clean, civilized, decent environments. And, the Esplanade Hotel is but one example, and not the best at that.

The problem is not so much a matter of the specific options available, nor their relative cost, but rather the philosophical, and social perspective of the society underwriting those options. If a governmental agency can comfortably get away with treating those who are homeless, for whatever reason, as an isolated underclass, many financially absurd, and humanly wasteful choices will likely occur, by way of concealment and expeditiousness.

In the final analysis, too few people really care that for less money the “dregs of society,” as they are most often regarded, could be living in more uplifting, safer, more productive environments. Fewer still, stop to consider the long-term implications, or how society as a whole might benefit from any number of other options.

One such alternative, a winwin-win program that has been successfully employed with homeless individuals and families for many decades, in countries around the world, as well as in the United States, involves foster care sponsorship.

Under such programs the caregivers, the homeless, and the agencies footing the bill, all benefit in both a financial, and rehabilitative sense. Although the details were formally presented to Westchester County Government once, more than twelve years ago, and again, less than three years ago, without any demonstrated interest, perhaps another attempt, in this column in the near future might be appropriate.