Welcome to my blog and today’s post which is part of the annual A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. For more information on this amazing challenge and its creator visit:

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com

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My theme this year is An Intimate Look at the Homeless and Mental Health Epidemic in America which happens to be the subtitle of my next book, The Stranger in My Recliner. The book is the true story of, Sophie.  Sophie is the eighty-year-old homeless woman that my husband brought home one night. She lived with us for nearly three –years. The night that she walked through our front door changed me.

That book will be out later this year.

So; I decided this year’s posts will be on programs that actually help the homeless and the mentally ill, programs that don’t, when did homelessness become a problem and what or who caused it, famous homeless people, famous people that help the homeless and the mentally ill, what you can do that will help in a real way and a whole alphabet more…

Todays’ letter is:

Mission Statement- HUD’s mission is to create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. HUD is working to strengthen the housing market to bolster the economy and protect consumers; meet the need for quality affordable rental homes; utilize housing as a platform for improving quality of life; build inclusive and sustainable communities free from discrimination; and to transform the way HUD does business.

This department was established on September 9, 1965, when Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Department of Housing and Urban Development Act into law.

HUD is administered by the United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. *Julian Castro, a former Mayor of San Antonio, Texas, is the current and 16th United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

The secretary is responsible for dozens of programs, as diverse as the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise and the Office of Lead-Based Paint. In addition, the secretary appoints representatives or personally sits on dozens of committees, boards and commissions outside of the department. Commissions, councils and task forces on housing for minorities, the elderly, children and people with disabilities all have HUD members. Veterans Affairs and HUD have a joint committee on homeless veterans. The secretary must be familiar enough with the work of each and the HUD’s position on each to make recommendations to the president.

The quality of data on homelessness has improved considerably, due, in part, to initiatives by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the US Department of Health and Human Services, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and several nongovernmental organizations working with homeless populations. Since 2007, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development has issued an Annual Homeless Assessment Report, which revealed the number of individuals and families that were homeless, both sheltered and unsheltered.

HUD is large. It employs thousands of people and oversees hundreds of programs. Just one thing that falls under HUD is buying abandoned and/or blighted properties, refurbishing them and either renting them to a low-income tenant or selling them to a lower income buyer.

I have so many criticisms of this organization. Like most government organizations it is wrought with corruption and waste but for this post I am going to keep it simple. I have only one question:

There are nearly four-million homeless Americans and the numbers are growing. Why are there more ‘empty’ government owned HUD properties, in fact thousands more than there are actual homeless people? Instead of paying government executives hundreds of thousands of dollars to provide reports and to provide grants to hundreds and hundreds of ‘hamster wheel’ referral agencies that do nothing to assist the homeless wouldn’t it make sense to just fix the properties you have, place homeless people into those properties and provide them with a social worker so that within a year they could be paying you rent?

It will never happen because too many people would be bumped off of their gravy train including but not limited to politicians on all sides and unions.

* President Obama’s head of the scandal-plagued Department of Housing and Urban Development, Julian Castro, as the mayor of San Antonio misspent that agency’s funds-allocated to improve low-rent properties, according to a federal audit.

Another previous mayor of San Antonio who ran HUD pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about payments to a mistress. His name was Henry Cisneros and he was appointed by Bill Clinton. Actually HUD has been rocked by a number of scandals under both Democrat and Republican administrations, over the years. George W. Bush’s HUD secretary, Alphonso Jackson, was forced to resign in the midst of a federal investigation involving cronyism. Ronald Reagan’s HUD secretary, Samuel Pierce, was embroiled in an influence-peddling scandal that saw 16 people, including some of his top aides at the agency, convicted.

I could go on and on and on but will suffice to say that HUD needs to be destroyed from the top all the way down to all of its’ dirty little cracks and crevices. It needs to be replaced with one office, one leader and several employees. They need to hire legitimate companies to refurbish properties, move people in and provide them with a social worker. This would save taxpayers billions of dollars that could be used to create jobs and that would help to prevent homelessness.

Thank you for reading,

Doreen

For this years’ A-Z Challenge I am a minion (challenge helper) for the lovely co-host :

Lisa Buie-Collard

Meet the other minions:

Rhonda Albom –   Bob R. Milne –   Tamera Narayan  –   Stephanie Faris –   Heather McCubbin –   Randi Lee –

*Tina was a blogger and a dear friend that we lost in August. She loved the A-Z Challenge and was a friend and inspiration to all bloggers.