I'm not used to writing news diaries, but I thought this worthy of note: The Obama administration today released a bold plan specifically aiming to end homelessness in America in 10 years, with chronic and veteran homelessness eliminated within 5 years. The outlines of the plan are contained in Opening Doors 2010: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, a report issued by the US Interagency Council on Homelessness.
From McClatchy (emphasis mine):
The plan is a significant breakthrough because there's never been a comprehensive federal effort to end homelessness with a timeline and measureable goals, said Nan Roman, the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.
While I am not an expert on homelessness issues, or even especially informed about them, I find this announcement to be a heartening sign that the Obama administration intends to be bold in pursuing major objectives to address chronic problems in American society. Having objective metrics and an ambitious timeline makes it clear that this plan is something major, and also apparently unprecedented.
It is by no means a simple or dramatic "War on ____" style of plan, but an interwoven set of regulatory strategies, legislative tweaks, federal/state/local cooperation, and critical rethinking of how the problem is approached on every level. Now, this is not sexy like alternative energy; probably not going to elicit any Wagnerian theatrics like the conflict over health care; and definitely not as thorny as foreign policy; but maybe, just maybe we have seen the beginning of the end of a problem we have allowed to fester for far too long.
If this administration even comes close to achieving these objectives, it will have accomplished something that no previous administration has even attempted, and made America a better and more humane place. But even if it achieves only a fraction of what it seeks - if it "merely" eliminates half or a third of homelessness on a robust basis, that is hardly something to sneeze at either. And given the talent and patience demonstrated by this administration, I'm quite optimistic the results will be a lot better than that.
I leave it to people more versed in the subject than I to characterize what they see, but I'm encouraged. This is exactly the sort of thing that will rebuild America, far more critically than the dramatic battles we tend to focus on - boldly addressing problems that are usually ignored, and that undermine our society as a result. Homeless people are the most marginalized of the underclass - people denied even the most fundamental kinds of economic security. So if we can help them out of that condition and eliminate the phenomenon beneath the level of significance, then at least one part of a new American safety net will have been created.