Norfolk's Poverty Plan: A Housing Study

City politicians and civil servants can do little to alleviate poverty.

They can present, pontificate and propose. But they can't eradicate or eliminate.

 People can and will if given the chance. Poverty is about people, not about presentations and proposals.

Norfolk's Poverty Reduction Commission, created by Mayor Paul Fraim last February, is spearheaded by politicians and civil servants. Some members deal with the poor, but their voices are silent. But they are neither politicians nor civil servants.

The 12-page presentation reads like a development plan for a park, building or sculpture. In fact, the word “development” is mentioned four times in the revised presentation presented to City Council Sept. 22.

As I read it, I was waiting for the denouement, which is how much money will it take to reduce poverty in Norfolk.

In my opinion, the report was 10-pages too long. But if you hire a consultant, it's usually wise to pepper the audience and primarily the people who decide to pay your fees and charges with facts, figures and illustrations. And the city hired a consultant to help the 22-members navigate the thicket of cross-cultural ambiguities so characteristic of poverty.

So, now we have the bill, or how much it will cost to reduce poverty. There's no promise that spending this amount will reduce poverty.

That a number has emerged is no surprise; that it is so low is a surprise.

Total cost: $403,000.

The biggest expense is a housing study for $150,000. The number was imprisoned in brackets. In my world, brackets enclose a word to provide more clarity to the context of the sentence or a quotation.

In this case, the brackets provide less clarity. Is the number subject to change? Is the item subject to change?

A housing study, like many of the reforms in the recommendations, is putting the cart before the horse.

A house is the cart. A job is the horse.

The Commission decided that the cart, a house, is more important than the horse, a job.

In all fairness, the Commission did address workforce development, whatever that means. In my dictionary, that means something akin to jobs but is really related to something else.

Yet a citywide and regional housing study does nothing to house the homeless. It does, however, help to house the next consultant who will do the study.

The Commission and its members have good intentions. But some of their recommendations miss the mark.

A study to analyze housing is one of them. A study to analyze jobs and the impediments to getting a job would be benefit not only the poor but everyone.

If the poor don't have a job, they can't rent an apartment or a room. If they don't have a job, they usually don't have health insurance, especially in Virginia where the expansion of Medicaid is viewed as socialism.

If the poor don't have a job, they can't hire a babysitter or send their children to day care when they go work two jobs for minimum wage.

If the poor don't have a job, they don't exist. They are a number on a presentation; they are a presentation of illustrations and graphs illustrating cultural vagaries.

Jobs, jobs, jobs...

The Commission unveiled the revised recommendations during City Council's retreat Sept. 22. John Martin, the consultant who is trying to herd all the rice bowl owners in the city, also unveiled his plan to market Norfolk as an “urban, vibrant” city.

The two groups should have conferred prior to the meeting.

The Commission pitches poverty reduction.

John Martin pitches a marketing brand.

The two are mutually inclusive.

For a real look at poverty, read this article. 

Three Steps We Can Take to Solve Poverty, From Someone Who Knows Firsthand | Perspectives | BillMoyers.com

Tianna Gaines-Turner has been struggling to feed her family for years. She testified before Congress this week.