For almost a year, the Bloomberg administration has been tinkering with plans to charge homeless New Yorkers to live in public shelters. This has provoked strong reactions among some advocates who question the benefits of taking money from poor people who are in dire need of help.
One issue that is easily lost in this debate is that paying rent is more than monetary. It demonstrates mastery of a range of skills - for example, opening a bank account, keeping a checkbook and maintaining a budget.
These skills are not inherent or easy to acquire. Just think of all the bankruptcies declared among Americans with greater financial and emotional resources. Still, they must be learned, and homeless individuals - weighed down by poverty, struggling to survive on the streets and/or navigating the child welfare system - don't often have this opportunity.
I am honored to run an organization - Covenant House New York (CHNY), the City's largest nonprofit agency serving homeless, runaway and at-risk youth - where longer-term residents pay modest, weekly program fees. However, CHNY returns these funds when the youth are ready to move on. The "rent" helps them make a fresh start as they embark on independence.
By mandating that our residents set aside money, we teach them to budget and save: a life skill that is especially critical for those who are poor and thus have little to no room for error in their finances. Like other groups on "the margins," the CHNY population copes with a severe lack of low-income housing, and those fortunate enough to find jobs frequently receive very low pay.
Our approach goes beyond teaching the process of saving, but also demonstrates its tangible benefits. Formerly homeless young people, who are not accustomed to having extra cash, find themselves able to afford the security deposit for their first apartment, lightly-used furniture and/or clothes for a growing baby.
Just as important is that CHNY mimics what life is like in the "real world." The difference is that at the agency, young people can practice personal finance and perhaps "fail" without severe consequences. Instead, it becomes a learning opportunity.
For all these reasons, my colleagues and I believe charging homeless individuals "rent" is productive when it's used as a tool to educate and help save money. Without it, our residents would embark on new lives already in a financial hole, of which it is sometimes impossible to dig out.
Too often, individuals who have moved from agency to agency develop a dependence on "the system." Skills like paying rent can be lost, sometimes for generations. We cannot lose sight of this fact as we work to help those living in our shelters transition to self-sufficiency, and I'm sorry to say, free up room for men, women, youth and children who are still living on our streets.
Don't make it harder for people without opportunities to pick themselves up. You're not talking about a symbolic payment. You're talking about a significant portion of their income.
You'll just give homeless more impetus to return to the streets, or two vacant properties.
What a disaster!
Meaning, that people who end up in bankruptcy failed to budget properly? How long could most people live on their savings in the event of a job loss, illness, or some other life-disrupting event?
Teaching people to budget -- say, in a classroom setting when they are still children --- is valuable. Assuming that all poor people are poor because they don't budget oversimplifies a larger problem: it is impossible to live on a minimum wage job.
I had a caseworker to help me navigate the system. I applied for disability benefits, which after four years, I did get. I found other means during this time. I can understand how some might find it impossible to deal with the forms. I got one letter from SRS, that my lawyer could not understand and he had to call to clarify what it meant.
I do know that some in the shelter did have jobs and the Salvation Army kept their money in their safe so that it would not be stolen from them. They also packed a lunch for them and made sure they had clean clothes to wear to work.
Then there were the others who simply refused to work and I was there when they were offered a job so I know. That was a few years back now and they are still at the shelter and have been there for almost fifteen years now.
But elsewhere in the news, it appears Bloomberg, Our Eternal Mayor, has offshored many of his zillions in tax havens far from the grasping hand of the IRS or local and state tax collectors. He is sending the most valuable life-lesson of all-- if you're rich enough, there are no rules.