Fox Worried That Homeless Families Will “Permanently” Live In Hotels At Taxpayer Expense

Fox Host Wonders If Homeless Families Will Get Hotel Points. On the September 2 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-hosts Brian Kilmeade and Elisabeth Hasselbeck reported on a program in the District of Columbia meant to put homeless families into year-round housing. The Fox hosts claimed that the city's plan to house the homeless in hotel rooms would cost taxpayers $145 million, and Kilmeade wondered if the homeless “will get points” for their stay:

KILMEADE: Washington, D.C. is solving their homeless problem by putting the homeless in hotels. The mayor is using $145 million in taxpayer money to pay for new homeless initiatives, which include housing people in hotel rooms year round. Wonder if they'll get points. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/2/15; 9/2/15]

Fox's Hasselbeck Continues To Misrepresent D.C. Housing Program. On the September 3 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck discussed the D.C. housing program, wondering if it was “the right fix or a huge waste of taxpayers' money?” Guest Seton Motely, director of the conservative group Less Government, argued that if anti-poverty programs were effective, homelessness would have been solved “a long time ago,” and complained that the D.C. housing initiative would be “another government program that lasts forever.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 9/3/15]

The Washington, D.C. Program Is Focused On Efficiently Ending Homelessness

Interagency Council On Homelessness: It “Makes Fiscal Sense” To House Families In Overflow Motel Rooms. According to the findings of Washington, D.C.'s Interagency Council on Homelessness (ICH), overflow rooms in local motels are used by the city to get families into housing when shelters are at capacity. The city contracts with motels for a cost-effective temporary option until more permanent housing can be obtained:

The number of shelter units needed for families depends on BOTH shelter entries and exits per months. This is because one shelter unit is used by multiple families over the course of the hypothermia season. When a family exits shelter, the shelter unit is available to accommodate a newly homeless family. This cycle repeats itself throughout the season.

Because the District contracts with motel owners for overflow rooms, it makes fiscal sense to phase in a capacity over the season based on the number of rooms anticipated to be needed in a particular month.

As families need to be sheltered in apartments or private rooms, which can take longer and be harder to secure, the ICH included a contingency capacity estimate as an additional measure to ensure the District is adequately prepared for the potential need. [Interagency Council On Homelessness, District of Columbia Winter Plan: 2015-2016, 8/25/15]

Wash. Post: Year-Round Housing Program Will Reduce Winter Spikes In Shelter Demand. According to an August 31 report by The Washington Post, the city's plan to move more families into year-round housing will avoid sharp increases in families needing emergency shelter in the winter and play a crucial role in fulfilling Mayor Muriel Bowser's promise to address the city's homeless problem. The Post also noted that city law guarantees the legal right to housing when temperatures fall below freezing:

A document circulated by city officials last week showed the unannounced program has been a test run for moving to year-round shelter and is expected to lessen the influx of homeless families into shelter this winter.

If that proves true, the move could help Bowser (D) deliver on her campaign promise to transform the District's approach to its homeless crisis.

The District has experienced back-to-back years of record numbers of families entering shelter under a city law that gives the homeless a legal right to housing when the temperature falls below freezing. [The Washington Post,  8/31/15]

Wash. Post: Temporary Hotel Accommodation Is Useful When Families Become Homeless In Emergency Situations. According to a July 7 article in The Washington Post detailing the struggle of a family in the District of Columbia, families can become homeless for many reasons, often suddenly. In one case where a group of families lost their homes in a fire, relief agencies provided them with temporary housing in local hotel rooms:

For [Andre] Foster and [Shamicka] Oliver, the nightmare started late April 4, when they awoke and saw smoke engulfing their three-bedroom apartment. In a panic, the parents scrambled to lift their four children and Oliver's elderly grandmother out of a ground-floor window to safety.

The three other families in the building already had government rent assistance through Section 8 housing, Foster said, and that helped them find new shelter after the fire. That Foster's family was paying market rate rent ironically made finding a new home more difficult, according to the couple.

In the aftermath, it was the Red Cross, not the city, that first came to their aid, picking them up and placing them in a hotel for three days.

Then the District's Office of the Tenant Advocate swept in, covering an additional two weeks at the hotel, the couple said. And then the District's Crime Victims Compensation Program gave the family a few thousand dollars to cover three more weeks at a $200-a-night hotel on New York Avenue NE, Foster said. [The Washington Post, 7/11/15]

Street Sense: $145 Million Not Just For Motels But “A Range Of Affordable Housing Programs.” According to a report in Street Sense, a newspaper in Washington, D.C. written by homeless and formerly homeless individuals, the purported $145 million allocated in the city's Fiscal Year 2015 budget is meant to provide a range of affordable housing initiatives, including the program relocating homeless families into overflow hotel and motel accommodation:

The city's proposed FY15 spending plan includes $145 million in local dollars for a range of affordable housing programs, an increase of 12 percent over the current year's approved budget according to an analysis by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. The budget includes $4 million in new spending expected to create 350 affordable homes through the Local Rent Supplement Program and $4.7 million in new local funds to help end chronic homelessness among veterans through a permanent supportive housing program. The budget also dedicates $40 million in tax revenues to the city's Housing Production Trust Fund.

A total of nearly $43 million is earmarked for the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) Local Subsidy. [Street Sense, accessed 9/2/15]