Will the Homeless get a Stimulus Check?

Last week, the US Senate passed HR 748, the Cares Act, that will provide assistance for most Americans to the tune of $2.2 Trillion. As we have all heard, the money will go to aid businesses, workers, health care systems, and hospitals overwhelmed by the Carnivorous pandemic. 

According to the measure, the aid package would provide a direct cash payment of $1,200 to individuals and households earning less than $75k per year gross income. Couples with  a combined gross income under $150k would be eligible for $2,400. I'm not even going to talk about people earning more money than $200k because I don't really care about them, except to mention that the aid numbers increase by $500.00 per child for families regardless of income. 

But What about the Homeless? 
I recently had a conversation with a family member about homeless persons and the stimulus package. He was convinced that any monies that people in those and similar conditions would receive would probably be just "party time" money that would most likely be spent on doing what they've already been doing: spending it on drugs and alcohol. Because he's family, and he is intelligent, I understood that there was absolutely no judgement in his comment, but rather was an objective observation based upon the opinions of  many republicans in congress who don't think the aid package should focus upon individuals as opposed to corporate giants, big business, and "tax paying" citizens. 

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who has a net worth of $1.2 million, thought the stimulus package was "too generous" to the unemployed, stating that the package would incentivise the unemployed to lay themselves off rather than go to work. Graham told reporters that the "bill pays you more not to work than if you were working" noting that the stimulus bill would provide the equivalent of $24.00 per hour while the state of SC only pays $7.25 per hour for minimum wage. If Senator Graham feels that way about the working poor in his state, I can only assume his views of what the homeless deserve are much worse. 

If you are homeless, and don't have a known legal address it will be very difficult to get a stimulus check via the method the US Treasury is using to distribute the aid. The money is going to be distributed by the US Treasury Department to persons who:

• Filed a 2018 or 2019 income tax return - payment will be sent to person's last know address.
• Are employed - payment will come through your current employer's direct deposit system
• Have a social security number

Unfortunately, many of the homeless do not have an address where they can receive mail. When I was homeless, I remember having a couple of places where I received mail. One address was my son's mother's address because she was kind enough to to allow me to stay there for several months. Another place I received mail was a place called the Compass Center in downtown Seattle. Any homeless person can go there and sign up to get their mail delivered there. You must have a Washington State id card, however to take advantage of that service. 

The Compass Center is run by the Compass Housing Alliance, which is a low-income housing non-profit. The address to the compass Center is: 77 S. Washington St. Seattle, WA 98104. The phone number is 206.474.1000. 

In Seattle, there are several places where you can get a voucher to get an id card. The one place I know of is called the Solanus Casey Center located at 804 9th Avenue Seattle, WA 98104. 

Seattle's homeless and the Caronavirus

Tent City 3 is a homeless encampment located in the Phinney Ridge district of Seattle Washington. It is a part of a network of homeless encampments throughout King County. Most of the unsanctioned encampments are dirty, unsanitary and do not have provisions such as port- a-poties or dumpsters...an ideal breading ground not only for the Caronavirus, but many other diseases that can be spread by human contact, unsanitary conditions, or even the air.

I work for a local housing organization, and I come into direct contact with homeless people every day. Many of them tell me they know someone who is sick, or is sick themselves, but because they have no primary care physician, no health insurance, and no money, they can't get tested for Caronavirus, or any other health problem they are having. Per capita, Seattle has the third largest homeless population in the US. That fact, in addition to the poor and disjointed homeless services in this region is a clear prescription for bad things to happen regarding the control of the Caronavirus  in the homeless community.

Recently, I read that Seattle Mayor Durkan approved an expansion of Tiny Home villages in the Seattle area. Maybe these new tiny homes won't be built until the virus more under control, maybe they will. But the point here is that the Seattle City Council, state representatives, local police, and all quadrillion and two health agencies we have in King County don't seem to understand that a unique approach will be necessary to avoid a bona-fied outbreak of Covid-19 among the homeless. And the tragedy is that it's already too late.The virus is here. It has killed 31 people and it's being reported that  Washington State has over 370 known cases of the virus.

For all of the pretty names and concepts Seattle and King County uses for how we house people and provide social safety net services like: "wraparound services, housing first model, VI SPDAT indexing and prioritizing models, .... that are supposed to connect providers in order to treat the homeless and vulnerable populations, Seattle social services are as bad and disconnected as anywhere in the country as evidenced by our growing homeless numbers. If Seattle can't control its homeless population without the Caronavirus, it doesn't have a prayer of controlling the homeless population with a virus it can't control either.