$25,000 for “Greyhound Therapy” In the Mayor’s Budget!

“Greyhound Therapy” is the mayor’s term for how he would solve homelessness – give them a one way ticket out of town. And he actually has $25,000 for it in his budget!

So, I blogged this, its right there on my blog, but I never actually read it and comprehended what it meant. And no one asked about it at Board of Estimates. And the media didn’t think to ask or didn’t report it, but here it is.

It’s in the Miscellaneous items in the budget on page 10. It’s a new budget item this year. It appears as this.

Helping Hands Homeward (f) 25,000

The note explains.

(f) This funding is to assist persons without sufficient funding so that they can go home.

Funny thing is, from my discussions with him, he knows this won’t work. He cites examples of people they gave bus tickets to who just come back. Makes sense if your family and friends are here.

I heard from a couple alders and there has been an amendment circulating since Monday to remove this from the budget. I think several of them figured out what it was over the weekend. So my guess is that it will be removed. Tho I can’t wait to hear that debate. I’m guessing it will be no discussion and a simple vote but who knows.

And, I’m hoping that it is $25,000 towards operating funds for a day center. Now if we just eliminate teh $50,000 musci video for Madison, we would be at the $75,000 needed to match the county’s $75,000 in operating expenses for a permanent day center with professional staff.

3 COMMENTS

  1. on the plus side, it might be nice for those who would like to winter in a warmer climate. I hear that Palm Springs is nice especially because of all the public fruit trees. 🙂 Maybe we could cut a deal with Austin, TX and they could help everyone get North for the summer.

  2. Well, to be fair, most of the people begging for money around Madison say they need it for bus fair to Chicago or Milwaukee, so IF they are telling the truth, this might help.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.