I have to agree with Mark. Rooming or boarding houses were an urban staple for much of the last century and were especially helpful for single men and women working in low wage jobs. At least one had a bedroom, a communal bathroom and one modest communal meal a day. In the 30's-50's, Minneapolis had dozens of these houses!
Given the large number of homeless who have serious addictions to alcohol or drugs or who suffer from chronic mental illness, this does not solve the problem of homelessness. Nor would it usually help the single mother with several children or a family, but it is a practical solution for some individuals working in low paying jobs who simply cannot afford housing in today's inflated marketplace. There are quite a few older single family homes in Minneapolis that have four or more bedrooms which would (did) work quite well as rooming houses. In some cases, they once did served boarding houses for many years. In fact, I had a great aunt and a great uncle who spent much of their adult lives living in boarding or rooming houses in Minneapolis and at least four of their residences are still standing and seem to be in pretty good shape. Granted, this is not a solution for everyone. Even if only 10% of those currently homeless were able to take advantage of this kind of arrangement, it would be a positive step in the right direction. Jim Bernstein Fulton -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Anderson & Turpin Sent: Thursday, December 25, 2003 7:35 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: Re: [Mpls] Forwarding a post from Lydia Howell re: homelessness Lydia Howell wrote, amongst other things: > 4.Here's a reality-check on homeless folks:40+% are EMPLOYED--they just > can't FIND houding threy can afford.Reality-check:a ONE-room efficiency > averages $450 a month--IF you can FIND it;a 1-bd rm is $625 a month. > Imagaine being a $5.50-6.00 an hour worker trying to pay for such > hosuing! Mark Anderson replies: I think the obvious answer to this is to again allow rooming/boarding houses in Mpls. The rule against having a certain number of unrelated persons in one house is one of those laws written for a town with no lower class. Allowing a bunch of unrelated folks to share a house would result in most of that 40% being able to afford to pay their own way, which would free up a bunch of the shelters. Problem solved, with no public money spent! And at the same time it gives back pride to poor people because they can survive on their own. Admittedly, it would probably take a few years after the law was repealed for enough of the shared houses to reach the market. But we should be trying to solve long term problems as well as short term ones. Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
