City official suggests the homeless take cabs

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.suntimes.com/news/8528756-418/city-official-suggests-the-homeless-take-cabs.html

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter/[email protected] October 31, 2011 3:00PM

The head of the city’s Department of Family and Support Services had a Marie Antoinette moment on Monday — when she suggested that homeless Chicagoans who need overnight transport this winter “take a cab” to emergency shelters.

After testifying at City Council budget hearings, Commissioner Evelyn Diaz was discussing the $2.4 million, mid-year cut in state funding that forced Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lay off 24 city employees who worked the overnight shift picking up homeless residents and transporting them to shelters.

Diaz was asked what would happen this winter without the overnight shift. How were homeless Chicagoans — many of them suffering from alcohol, substance abuse and mental health problems — supposed to get to emergency shelters overnight? Were they supposed to just hang tough until 8 a.m?

[virgogal]

1. It's amazing how out of touch some people are.

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. yep. A few months ago, I took at cab ride for just a few miles. the fare was $13 before tip

[Enrique]

8. surprised she didn't say take a limo

:mad:

[Capitalocracy]

17. Might as well have. nt

[gratuitous]

2. And why are they wintering in Chicago anyway?

Are their houses in Arizona or Florida unsuitable for some reason?

Commissioner Diaz might need a little primer on what "homeless" means.

[Marazinia]

3. What an idiot

Yeah, take a cab, send the cabbie over to knock on her door for the fare.

[Enrique]

4. fire her ass

wtf kind of person would be so clueless. Where did she come from and how did she get that job. Some fucked up political appointmet no doubt.

[RKP5637]

5. Yet another fine example of why this country is so F'ed. n/t

[dixiegrrrrl]

7. Hope Chicago OWS takes a cake to her.

[Danascot]

16. + 1,000

AWESOME idea, dixiegrrrrl!

DU could easily get together and send it to her on behalf of OWS.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. Oh boy I have a couple of other stories like this one. People who have jobs and are doing ok...

are very often out of touch. They think $1.00 is easy to come by. They think $5.00 can easily be disposed of. They think items that go up 50 cents are no big deal. For them, you have to do like people often do to ADHD kids: try to get and maintain their attention, then tell them that homeless people have nothing.

[sakabatou]

10. WTH?!

[Cal Carpenter]

11. I hate to butt in

but having read the article at the link it looks like her comment may have been taken out of context in order to discredit her.

For all I know, she deserves to be discredited - I have no clue what her record is, but it sounds to me like she was deliberately making a point about how few options there will be for homeless people because these positions are being cut.

From the article:

"But, Julie Dworkin, director of policy for the Chicago Coalition of the Homeless, said, “I’m not offended by it. I don’t know that she believes it’s realistic for homeless people to take a cab. She was probably just trying to show how difficult the situation is — that we’re left with choices that really don’t make sense.”"

[Enrique]

18. yeah, looking at her background, her comment doesn't make sense as reported

Diaz has tons of experience with poor people. Like you, I don't have an opinion of her, but she's clearly no Marie Antoinette.

http://www.cityofchicago.org/city/en/depts/fss/auto_generated/fss_leadership.html

Evelyn Diaz was recently appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lead the city’s Department of Family and Support Services after serving an appointment by former Mayor Richard M. Daley as CEO of the Chicago Workforce Investment Council (CWIC). At CWIC, Ms. Diaz was charged with ensuring the growth and success of an organization whose mission is to create a skilled and educated workforce to keep Chicago’s economy thriving.

Before joining CWIC, Ms. Diaz served as Deputy Chief of Staff in the Office of the Mayor. In that role, she served as the Mayor’s Office liaison to the city’s human capital departments (aging, children & youth, domestic violence, human services, human relations, workforce development, people with disabilities, public health) and oversaw the Mayor’s various initiatives related to poverty, jobs, and economic security.

Prior to working in the government sector, Ms. Diaz was Associate Director of the Chicago Jobs Council, an employment policy and advocacy group, where she was responsible for overseeing financial, administrative, policy, and program operations as well as coordinating Opportunity Chicago, a $23 million citywide workforce development initiative involving the Chicago Housing Authority and numerous government and education agencies in a collaborative effort to assist thousands of public housing residents enter and succeed in employment.

Ms. Diaz has also worked at the community level, first as a direct practitioner providing individual and group domestic violence counseling and managing community-based programs for disadvantaged women, and later as an aldermanic assistant in Chicago's 46th Ward where she coordinated economic development initiatives and managed the alderman's homeless, childcare, and domestic violence projects.

Ms. Diaz received her graduate degree from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration and her undergraduate degree from the University of Notre Dame. Ms. Diaz is a Chicago Council on Global Affairs Emerging Leader, and she serves on the governing boards of the National Skills Coalition, The Delta Institute, Resurrection University, and the Chicago Tech Academy.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. I think they should take crabs, instead.

[Posteritatis]

13. That's upgrading from "let them eat cake" to "let them eat Caspian Sea caviar." (nt)

[appleannie1]

14. I am not homeless and I can't afford a cab. These people are clueless

[KamaAina]

15. Is this a Rahm appointee, by any chance?

:eyes:

[Turbineguy]

19. A warm and comfy place

to eat their cake.

[lpbk2713]

20. But the driver might not take anything greater than a fifty.

:sarcasm:


Unfuggenbelievable.

[barbtries]

21. cuts that are being made

some are so fucking stupid. but i guess there is a certain "class" of people in our society who would prefer that the police just pick up dead frozen bodies of people who didn't actually have to die.