It's no secret that at least ten of America's most impoverished cities --and highest-crime cities -- are run by Democrats and have been for decades. For all their big talk about being champions of the disenfranchised, Democratic policies and often, corruption, have enslaved more Americans in these beleaguered cities than any big, bad, capitalist Republican ever has.
In fact, one Republican mayor is showing how helping a city's poor isn't that hard at all.
Homelessness is on the rise in cities around the country and Albuquerque is no exception. The city's Mayor Richard Berry saw an opportunity to turn his town's panhandlers into bona fide workers. Red Alert Politics shares details about Berry's "There's a Better Way" program:
In September 2015, Berry launched “There’s a Better Way,” a government program that hires panhandlers to work on city beautification projects for $9 an hour. They’re also fed lunch and offered an overnight stay at a shelter.
The project has been a runaway success. The program has not only given out 932 jobs and cleared litter and weeds from 196 city blocks; it has also connected 100 homeless people to permanent employment, according to the Washington Post.
Four days a week, the “There’s a Better Way” van picks up about 10 homeless people a day and offers them work.
The non-profit St. Martin’s Hospitality Center facilitates the city’s program and has worked to connect the homeless with a support system, employment, and assistance in transitioning them out of life on the street.
Berry’s campaign to relieve the city’s homeless population is a stark difference from other municipalities that have simply banned panhandling. That’s treating a symptom without ever attacking the disease. Berry’s program has been so successful that dozens of other mayors have reached out to him to work on creating their own similar programs.
The video featured above provides additional details about "There's a Better Way" and the people it's helping. Would something like this honestly be that difficult to implement in inner cities and other degraded areas across the U.S.? (a rhetorical question, to be sure).
