By CHRIS POWELL
Theodore Roosevelt, who in his time was considered good liberal authority, noted that the first duty of a citizen is to pull his own weight. Only then, Roosevelt said, can a citizen’s surplus strength be of use to society.
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So it is strange that so many people who consider themselves liberals are horrified by the new federal law that sharply limits food subsidies for able-bodied single adults who aren’t working. The liberals shriek that new rule may eliminate food subsidies for as many 36,000 people in Connecticut unless they can show they are working at least 80 hours per month.
What’s the big deal about that? Eighty hours per month is not even 20 hours per week. Any able-bodied single adult who can’t work 20 hours per week to support himself and thereby earn his government food subsidy needs a lot more motivation to stop being a burden on society and to start pulling his own weight.
But government in Connecticut is not in a good position to scold people for shiftlessness when it long has been running up the cost of living — even putting hidden taxes on residential electricity — and thereby discouraging those who already may be down on their luck, demoralized, or lacking job skills, as many socially promoted graduates of Connecticut’s high schools lack them.
Indeed, as the state’s rising cost of living pushes many people toward poverty and even homelessness, state government should be providing the destitute with more than food — but in exchange for work. State government should be providing them with emergency, barracks-type housing and jobs with which they can begin to earn their benefits until they can live on their own — an arrangement like the town farms of old.
The key would be to push people toward self-sufficiency and away from the demoralization that welfare causes and the irresponsibility that leads to welfare dependence.
Such a system would not solve the problems of the many homeless people who are chronically mentally ill. But at least enough barracks-type housing would allow them to get off the street during cold weather, to bathe and use a toilet, and have a little privacy, a prerequisite of sanity.
As a matter of fairness only state government can take responsibility for those who aren’t taking or can’t take responsibility for themselves. Municipalities and churches don’t have adequate resources for this.
New Haven particularly is overwhelmed by homeless people, many mentally ill, who, along with their advocates, are pressing city government to open more shelters, which will draw still more homeless and mentally ill people to the city.
One of those advocates was quoted last week as saying it’s “immoral” that New Haven “doesn’t have a plan to ensure that everyone has a guaranteed right to shelter throughout the winter.” Mayor Justin Elicker replied that the city does more for the homeless than any other municipality in the state — that the city maintains seven shelters and spends $1.5 million per year on the homeless.
The mayor might have asked: When did New Haven and its taxpayers become responsible for all the region’s homeless and mentally ill?
While a homeless man died overnight on the New Haven Green this month, at almost the same time two homeless people died outdoors in Stamford. This is a statewide problem — an estimated 800 people in Connecticut are living outdoors and 3,000 in shelters, and more than 130 homeless people have died while living outdoors in the state this year. Now that it’s cold, shelters usually have to turn people away because they are full.
The homeless and uninstitutionalized mentally ill constitute an emergency. Connecticut needs a government agency to take them all in hand — to ensure not just that they can get state medical insurance and food but also that they can have a cot in a safe barracks, and that they are required to do some work to cover their expense and accept their responsibility to pull their own weight.
Chris Powell has written about Connecticut government and politics for many years. (CPowell@cox.net)
Chris Powell column 