As a boy in Western Pennsylvania, my father would tell me when we would see “hobos,” that the only difference between them and the Mellon family (Pennsylvania’s answer to the Coors family) was money. One of the many things the old man never understood was the term “homeless.” The concept made him nuts. Plus, he also never understood how Nixon became President.
Somewhere along the line since my father died, homelessness has become a noble cause. We are now teaching our children that homelessness is the fault of our society. I’ve spent many dead trees writing about political correctness; homelessness is yet another politically correct noble cause. In 2005, John Hickenlooper, then mayor now governor, launched the “Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness.” This was for Hickenlooper the equivalent of the old Soviet’s 10 year plans for the glorious people or Mao’s “Great Leap Forward.”
Under the Hickenlooper administration the glorious people of Denver were going to build glorious shelters, and the glorious homeless were going to be given priority and all would be well. Homelessness would end and there will be once again peace in the valley. But, in the words of Gomer Pyle, “Shazaam!” All you have to do is drive down Speer Blvd. to see John Hickenlooper’s own Great Leap Forward in action. If there ever was a bigger con, I guess it was RTD’s light rail, and all kinds of jive attempts to move the Stock Show.
When the Denver Commission to End Homelessness launched its efforts, most Denverites were really sure there would be no homelessness in 10 years. Now here’s where the rubber meets the road.
Enter “The Dragon,” Denver auditor, Dennis Gallagher. He figured 63 million dollars has been spent ending homelessness in the last 10 years. The auditor figured there were an estimated 3,200 homeless people in Denver. Okay, as I’ve stated before, I can neither do math nor marriage, but we’ve got 63 million dollars spent to end homelessness in 10 years — you would think we would have something to show for it. Instead we appear to have even more homelessness.
If you feed bears, squirrels or birds, what you get are just more bears, squirrels and birds. Auditor Gallagher’s review of Denver’s Road Home, found, and I quote, “they’ve done a poor job of tracking numbers and demonstrating progress.” The auditor went on to say the 10 year goal to end homelessness remains unclear. “We’ve spent all of this money but we don’t know if anything is actually getting better.”
Dennis the Menace is being kind. The Commission to End Homelessness was made up of cronies of Mayor Hickenlooper, paid significant salaries, and given titles such as “Homelessness Advocate,” but they were little more than foxes guarding the hen house.
I gained my sobriety 29 years ago, I spent 25 of those years as a volunteer and board member for the late Bob Coté’s Step 13. As opposed to The Road Home, Bob Coté’s motto was “work works, and sobriety works.” And to my surprise the one guy in the city who understood how to end homelessness, was never once invited to any of John Hickenlooper’s summits on ending homelessness. Or, for that matter, anything that Mayor Hancock does along the same lines.
One of the things that I’ve urged Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey to do, (from my mouth to Mitch’s ear) is to launch a grand jury investigation into Denver’s shameless waste of money regarding homelessness. It’s a fraud, this is a con, this is a grift perpetrated by J.H. and supported by big media. One of the lines from a Denver Post article was how the Commission is still committed to ending homelessness. These are the moments that I always want to say, “Hey Dick Tracy where’d you park your squad car?”
Speaking out against the homelessness con job is another politically correct crime. John Hickenlooper created Denver’s Road Home, people gave the money and things are worse. Where I came from, that’s a con. You paid the man to fix the hole in your roof, to pave your driveway, to fix the television, and still nothing works. But, of course, these guys keep their jobs and they are still promising that they’re going to end homelessness. Drive down Speer Blvd., every street corner, everybody’s got a sign everybody’s got a mooch going. Most of them have cell phones and they’ve got a cigarette in their mouth and they don’t look like they missed a meal. The phony 10 year plan worked well for them.
Happy Halloween. Trick or Treat, you got tricked!
— Peter