This post isn’t on Thanksgiving (like it was supposed to be), but what’s a little delay when it comes to dissecting the systemic failures we live with and accept every day? Continuing to ignoring our major failures sure won’t fix anything.
To all my “Make America Great Again” followers, here’s a question: when did your orange idol ever talk about ending homelessness, feeding hungry kids, or helping Americans escape the paycheck-to-paycheck grind? I’ll wait.
Meanwhile, 26% of households in this country are living paycheck to paycheck, barely scraping by on necessities like gas, food, and utilities. Source: Many Americans are still living paycheck to paycheck, report finds And instead of solutions, we get guilt-tripping ads asking why one in five kids in America goes hungry—like it’s up to us as individuals to solve what’s clearly a government failure. Feeding kids and housing people is national security, not an F-35 fighter jet.
Personal Responsibility vs. Systemic Failure
This Thanksgiving, I reopened “David’s Home for Wayward Souls” for someone I’ve known for 37 years. A homeless man I’ve tried to help countless times. His mom died when he was young, I had him locked up for a year at Nicholas Residential treatment center as a teen- and he got 2 three year stints in the state slammer for being Black in Greene County. But here’s the recent kicker: he’s working full-time driving a truck and still living in his SUV.
I put conditions on his stay this time. I asked him to talk to Sinclair about finally finishing his associate degree. They have a program for “returning citizens” that should be able to help recognize the credits he earned in prison and his Sinclair courses that had him a stats class short of graduation. I told him I’d save $200 a month of his rent, so he could have a down payment on housing come spring. But he turned me down. The prospect of structure and stability scares him and his psychosis.
He’s not the first person I’ve taken in. Another long time friend—a registered nurse with a master’s degree—crashed hard under the weight of clinical depression. She lost her capacity to work, and it took her 20 months to dig out, during which she lived in my home. That’s 20 months of no income, no benefits, no help. How does someone with skills that vital end up so unsupported?
And let’s not forget: she’s one of the “lucky” ones who found a way back. Too many others are left to fend for themselves, as the system shrugs.
A Broken System
How did we end up here? Homelessness persists because of systemic failures:
- Health care isn’t a right in this country.
- Mental health, dental, and vision care are treated like extras, not essentials.
- Medical bankruptcy is an acceptable outcome in America.
The problem is that American’s don’t understand that we cause homelessness and personal bankruptcy because our health care system is for profit- and we don’t recognize health care as a fundamental human right. We also pretend that mental health care, dental and vision care are somehow not required health care as well, like your brain, teeth and eyes are somehow separate from the rest of you.
If you’re wondering why people are rooting for “the adjuster” who gunned down Brian Thompson, the CEO of United Health Care this week, it’s because the system is out of whack. For all of us. The costs of an unhealthy population compound through the workforce, through our national productivity, through higher costs for health care and worse outcomes than any other industrialized nation.
Look at Dayton’s Gateway Shelter for Men. It’s unsafe (my friend left for a reason), and come June, St. Vincent DePaul is pulling out of managing it. Meanwhile, the city spent over a million dollars on a public toilet outside City Hall. What does that say about priorities?
Our “NIMBY” thinking isn’t working. We keep concentrating problems in one place, like dumping homeless people into a converted prison in the middle of nowhere and calling it a “shelter.” I’d call it an internment camp. How did they magically imagine that this was the solution to solve this growing problem.
Other cities are doing better. Look at Safe Park Indy, where people living in their cars get safe overnight parking, access to restrooms and phone chargers, and connections to social services.
This isn’t rocket science. Safe parking programs work. Why can’t Dayton step up? Or is it because there are no kickbacks from demolition companies to be had for helping the homeless?
Thanksgiving Reflections
This year, I’m wrestling with what “thankfulness” even means in a community where people are living in cars and going hungry.
Sure, I’m thankful for a roof over my head and the privilege of good VA health care. But how many others are scraping by, one crisis away from losing it all?
Instead of fixing the system, we let people fall through the cracks. We tear down homes instead of building them. We treat health care as a privilege and homelessness as a crime. And somehow, WPAFB is supposed to be our “economic engine”? War doesn’t build communities; it destroys them.
A Call for Real Solutions
What if we stopped throwing money at the symptoms and started addressing the root causes?
- What if local governments and schools joined together, self-insured, built a county hospital, and invited local businesses to join? (see the site for the Community Clergy Coalition’s plans for a hospital)
- What if Dayton embraced programs like Safe Park Indy to help people stabilize while they rebuild their lives? Spread out all over the county?
These aren’t pie-in-the-sky ideas. They’re solutions that work.
So this Thanksgiving, I ask: what are we truly thankful for? And what are we doing to make sure others have something to be thankful for, too?
I can’t be the only one who knows people who are struggling with mental health, homelessness and health care in this community, I’m sure everyone has their own story of health care gone wrong. Our leaders keep saying that it’s their job to create jobs, yet, we’re not seeing progress in our community.
It’s time to choose welfare over warfare, healthcare over wealthcare, and people over profits. Only then can we give thanks and actually mean it.
Happy belated Thanksgiving.
Song: A roof for the soul, by David Esrati
I have been there David as I’m sure you remember back in 2017.. I’m looking at this only through a policy lens because the Democrats added 20% to the cost of food, rents went up 30% during the last 4 years due to inflation. Inflation is cumulative
so a 2% annual inflation rate does not reduce inflation back to 2021 rates. A lot of the poorest Americans( black, hispanic males, high school graduates)voted for Trump, by spending less overall, inflation will stay low under a Trump presidency.
Democrats had the first 2 years of Biden’s term to raise the minimum wage to 15 an hour( I am for a minimum wage increase) and a democrat named Krysten Sinema dressed in a cheerleading skirt said thumbs down to this on the Senate floor in 2021. It didn’t pass. I remember it well. Maybe you all do too. Sinema decided to get out of the Democratic Party altogether and did not run this year. Policies can lower the poverty rate and Biden’s policies have made poverty worse, not better. Democrats should have passed an 8 dollar an hour federal minimum wage increase. Ohio minimum wage is close to 10.50 an hour. Would have been a 4 dollar an hour plus raise.
Also having health insurance with a 3000-6000 deductible is not really insurance at all. Maybe Trump can fix health care- he has the brightest minds working on government reform.
Democrats talk policies, but implementation for democrats on these issues are a failure. Can’t blame republicans for homelessness if democrat policies make homelessness worse. Let’s see what Trump can do, Democrats have been in office 12 of the last 16 years. Can’t really blame Republicans for poverty.
Perfect response, Herbert. But not what liberals want to hear. There’s no end to their bleeding hearts when using other people’s money. As Esrati himself stated, he tried helping someone and it didn’t stick. Because many don’t want to be helped. We pay dearly into welfare programs. That’s enough. I’m certainly not going to lose any sleep over those who made bad life decisions and don’t want to help themselves.
Karl Keith with his 30+ yrs of Treasurer experience can’t stop an employee from stealing $185k. Yet, you expect more government to help folks succeed. HOW?!!!!!
Why does it not surprise me to see Republican Billy here devoid of any empathy for the downtrodden … could it be that he is quite secure in his millions of dollars house, advanced degrees, and well paid job? As former Democrat Herb knows, things can happen to people that take them down hard, sometimes through no fault of their own. I know someone very well who often said the U. S. Bankruptcy Court was their only healthcare option. That person could not obtain healthcare coverage, despite having full time employment with a medical practice and with a law firm, because the employers did not offer it. For eight years (before the Affordable Care Act), that employee was uninsured – through no fault of their own. Fortunately, that person has aged into Medicare coverage, which still has premiums to pay. It’s time for portable, individual, affordable healthcare for every American. More butter, less guns. Just like many other American cities, Montgomery County, Ohio has homelessness. In 2023, 87% of the homeless were single adults. The majority have jobs (34%), are seniors (31%), and are disabled (18%). Affordable housing stock is severely limited. Fair market rent in the county has increased 47% in the last year. David is right to be concerned with the demolition of existing housing stock, but most was not habitable at tear down time. Here is a link to county data on everything you want to know about the topic, including a plan to deal with it. https://www.mcohio.org/367/Local-Homelessness-Data It sounds like the renters David has taken in pay him rent (perhaps reduced). Paying reduced rent, which is an income stream for David, helps renters who cannot locate viable housing. His current tenant, while gainfully employed, is probably underemployed and may not be making a living wage for full sustainability. Taxpayer paid programs are probably his healthcare option. David and his tenant should enjoy their VA and Medicaid(?) benefits before Swamy & Musk sic a DOGE on and gut it. Look ahead, Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid recipients – Trump’s goon squad are coming for you next. https://www.yahoo.com/news/vivek-ramaswamy-wants-start-doge-223626905.html As… Read more »
Kudos to Herbert and Billy. Truth is sometimes hard to digest for some.
If Dayton Public Schools are graduating High School kids with 3rd grade reading & math levels how would anyone expect these kids to succeed in life?
Those two public bathrooms are almost ransacked on a daily basis. What a wa$te of tax payer$ money!
Almost ransack – how do you know? Do you clean these for your day job?