Year: 2006

Editor’s note: The following was printed as an op-ed in the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. It didn’t appear on their website when originally printed, possibly because they were redesigning the site. It is reprinted here with the author’s permission and is copyright 2006 Ronal Madnick.

In 2000, the City Manager created the Commission on Homelessness with a dual charge to improve services and housing for the homeless and to relocate the PIP Shelter. In August of 2000 the Commission issued its five year plan titled “Housing the Single Adult Homeless: the Worcester Plan. ”

On June 23, 2004 a plan to end chronic homelessness in Worcester developed by the Committee to End Chronic Homelessness in 10 Years was adopted by the City Manager’s Commission on Homelessness.

The Minority Report, developed by the City Manager’s Commission on Homelessness, June 19, 2004 points out that chronically homeless persons must be assisted but also points out that others who also need assistance must be considered. “Individuals who are living with friends or relatives in overcrowded conditions , prisoners who are released to the street, foster children who reach the age of 18 when they are no longer eligible for foster care, the battered spouse who leaves an abusive home, the indivudal who is laid off/fired from employment and can no longer afford housing, the tenant at will who loses housing because the building was sold, the tenant at will whose rent increase forces them to the street” must also be considered.

In 2006 the City Manager announced a goal to end homelessness within five years. The Manager is clearly moving in the right direction but five years is too long. There is no reason why the city cannot carry out a program within a year or two.

Enough studies. Let’s get to work.
Continue reading “Worcester’s Homeless Plan”

Here’s an interesting article in the New Yorker about relative vs. absolute poverty. A number of people, self included, have pointed out that many poor people in America routinely own items once considered luxuries or are in some other ways better off than poor people, or even, to a certain extent, the middle class were a generation ago. The article takes this as a starting point but then makes the argument that relative poverty, not absolute poverty, is what actually counts, and that relative poverty has real effects. In other words, just because poor people are likely to own TVs now doesn’t mean that poverty isn’t still a bad thing. (Another way of looking at that would be to say that owning a TV or a dishwasher doesn’t really matter much when discussing “poverty” as a concept.)

The article doesn’t really go much into what sort of nutrition the poor in America are getting now vs. a generation ago, and it would be worth examining ways in which the poor might be worse off even in absolute terms than in years past.

And of course, we’re speaking of “the poor” as one large group that might include everyone from the absolutely destitute to those who might be better off but not exactly comfortable. Disaggregating the stories could make a more vivid picture of the situation.

Ed. note: Spanish version follows English version.

On the 26th anniversary of the Martyrdom of Romero, March 24, 2006

The Oscar Romero Catholic Worker Community Opposes the Wicked Immigration Laws!

In recent months, laws have been introduced into the United States Congress and the Oklahoma Legislature that would treat immigrants and refugees with great harshness and cruelty. These laws would make it a crime to offer help to the poor if they are not legal residents.

The Oscar Romero Catholic Worker community condemns these laws. We call upon all people of goodwill to stand together in solidarity against these wicked and evil laws that are based in racism and hatred of other cultures. We encourage everybody to contact their representatives in Congress and the Oklahoma Legislature to show their opposition.

We welcome the migrant and the refugee to our city and state. Our city and state will be better places to live if we offer hope and hospitality to immigrants.

If these laws are passed by Congress and the Legislature, we will meet this culture of death evil with civil disobedience. We will continue to offer hospitality and help to immigrants, even if this becomes a crime. There is no moral obligation to obey an evil and wicked law. There is nothing in the Bible that commands us to obey the government when the government does evil. We will not damn our souls to hell to satisfy corrupt politicians. We will continue to feed the hungry at every opportunity we find. We will never ask anyone to prove that they are a legal resident before offering them help and hope.
Continue reading “OKC Catholic Worker statement on proposed immigration laws”