Clinton Doling Out $1 Billion for Homeless

President Clinton, invoking a traditional Christmas theme, announced Saturday nearly $1 billion in grants to help more than 245,000 homeless people get off the streets and into self-sufficiency.

“We’re reaching out to the poorest among us--to those who do not yet share in America’s growing prosperity,” Clinton said in his weekly radio address. “We’re making new efforts to reach out to the homeless, to help them find housing, medical care and jobs.”

This is the third consecutive Christmas that Clinton has announced assistance for the homeless under the 1993 Continuum of Care program, which provides emergency shelter for the homeless, then moves them to transitional and eventually permanent housing.

In previous years, Clinton has announced his intentions to seek additional money under the next fiscal year’s budget; this year he announced grants from funds already appropriated as part of the fiscal 2000 budget. The announcement came against the backdrop of New York politics, in particular the Senate race between First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani.

New York City is to receive $60.5 million from the program, but Washington will administer the funds. (California is to get $133.1 million.) Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo, son of Mario M. Cuomo, the former governor of New York, and an active supporter of the first lady’s Senate campaign, announced last week that the Department of Housing and Urban Development will take control of millions of dollars of federal funds for the homeless in New York City. It was the first time the department has taken such action against a city.

Cuomo said the action was made necessary by a federal court finding that city officials had demonstrated a pattern of antagonism and acted with “retaliatory intent” against a nonprofit provider of services for the homeless.

Giuliani drew a connection between the HUD decision and Cuomo’s support for the first lady’s candidacy. She and the mayor, who also is likely to run for the Senate, have been skirmishing over the issue of homelessness since mid-November, when a man believed to be homeless approached 26-year-old Nicole Barrett on a busy midtown street and bashed her head with a brick. She was hospitalized with brain injuries and initially was unable to walk or talk, although her condition has improved. A suspect, who reportedly turned out not to be homeless, has been charged with assault and attempted murder.

Giuliani has announced that police will arrest street people who refuse offers to go to shelters; earlier, he had directed that all able-bodied homeless people who refused workfare assignments be evicted from city-run shelters. The first lady accused him of “punishing the poor.”

A recent report released by the Clinton administration found that the priority of homeless people surveyed was to get jobs and that 44% of homeless people had worked at least part time during the previous month. It also found that 34% of those who used services for the homeless were members of homeless families and that 23% of them were children. The report also found that 39% reported having mental health problems, 38% said they suffered from alcohol abuse and 26% suffered from drug abuse.

Finally, the report said that 76% of those living in homeless families and 60% of single homeless people improved their living situations after receiving assistance for the homeless and other services.

The latest round of grants will go to all 50 states to fund more than 2,000 projects. They include $750 million to help homeless people with job training, child care, substance abuse treatment and mental health services and $150 million for emergency shelter and other needs.

In praising the programs, Clinton spoke of his experience earlier this week helping prepare holiday meals at the D.C. Central Kitchen. The local Washington community kitchen makes 3,000 meals a day for the homeless and trains people to work in food services, “to hold down jobs, to turn their lives around.”

He said he worked alongside Steve Pritchett, who had “made some mistakes” and had been homeless most of his adult life as a result. “If it was cold, you’d most likely find Steve spending Christmas under a bus shelter or beside a steam grate,” Clinton said.

As a result of the D.C. Central Kitchen’s training program “he’s clean and off the streets” and has been offered a job, Clinton said. Of the facility and its 5,000 volunteers this year, Clinton said: “That’s America at its best--when neighbor helps to lift up neighbor, and together we shine a light in the darkness. That is also the true spirit of Christmas.”