A beeline to this week's buzzing roses and razzes
The San Diego Union-Tribune
By: Logan Jenkins
http://bit.ly/2sD0jq1

A rose — the Different Strokes award — to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, for joining a couple of dozen legislators to urge Ben Carson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, to relax the current policy and allow federal grants to organizations like Vista-based Solutions for Change, which believes it best serves the homeless by requiring sobriety before providing housing.

Sure, there’s a debate of what works best. Many in the social welfare business believe getting the homeless off the streets should be the first priority. Once the homeless are housed, then worry about their health, mental and physical. Solutions for Change, a stubbornly independent nonprofit that’s been at this line of work for 20 years, disagrees and has recently turned its back on large grants rather than forswear its principles.

What should be important to HUD is what works, not adherence to one method over another.

Solutions for Change has shown results. Some say it doesn’t play well with other agencies in determining who should go where. OK, maybe it’s not a team player. But if it can prove that it’s helping a critical mass of homeless families, who cares? HUD should be flexible enough to at least consider spreading the wealth.

The proof of worthiness should be in the pudding, not in the purity.

The full article can be read in the San Diego Union-Tribune here.