Department of D'oh!

A recent review of existing research on family homelessness has affirmed that the primary cause for most homelessness among families is the inability to find housing they can afford

D'oh! I would've never guessed that.

I know, I'm being sarcastic, but honestly, when communities enact policies that, deliberately or not, make housing more costly, what exactly do they think is going to happen? That all the people who work at their McDonald's, their Starbucks, who watch and educate their kids, clean their houses, will somehow magically appear at the start of each shift? And go away "somewhere else" (fantasyland, perhaps?) when their shift is done? Look to Oconomowoc, Pewaukee, even the City of Waukesha & their "ad hoc housing mix report" all seem to operate under the belief system that people of lower economic classes should live somewhere else-anywhere else.

When will people realize that it's simply not practical-or good for our greater community-to keep doing this? President Bush had an initiative to end homelessness and prioritized funding for that, a priority that continues to this day. Despite that, we see:

The release of this review comes on the heel of another release: the 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The report suggests family homelessness increased over the last year.