WMAL.comFAIRFAX, Va. -- Resort-style swimming pools with fountains and heated spas, billiards rooms, granite counter tops, ceramic tile, indoor basketball courts, stainless steel appliances -- many Fairfax County taxpayers cannot afford such luxuries. But they are paying for these amenities for use by low-income residents who live in subsidized housing in affluent neighborhoods.
"They're a part of our rental program where we subsidize the rents for the individuals in the units, and we end up having to pick up the condo fees," supervisor Pat Herrity told 630 WMAL News.
Herrity does not advocate putting low-income residents in "ghetto-style" housing but he takes issue with taxpayers who cannot afford such luxuries being forced to pick up the tab for people who qualify for subsidized housing.
What I wonder about is why there are subsidized housing units in affluent neighborhoods at all. Is it an attempt to bring down those neighborhoods by leftists who feel the rich shouldn't have the opportunity to live in nicer 'hoods? It's happened here in Santa Monica, too. Of course, it's wonderful for those who need subsidized housing to live with the 'swells', but it's created more crime for the affluent who paid a lot of money to live in once-safer neighborhoods, and, while Santa Monica's done pretty well with fairly attractive architecture on the low-cost housing units most recently built, the inhabitants make such a mess of their balconies facing the streets (hanging clothes, old fake plants of turquoise plastic, broken chairs, etc.) that any attempts at fitting these buildings in is gone.
Apparently, it doesn't much matter for those who worked hard and bought into lovely neighborhoods that they enjoy the fruits of their labors and have safe places in which their children can play, but it matters to allow immigrants and other poor to hurt those neighborhoods...and be paid for by those who are the most negatively affected. Obviously, it would be less expensive for the city to build on less expensive real estate, too (there's plenty of it in Santa Monica), but it appears that's lost on the City Council? And, of course, they lose property tax income, too.
As for the article above........what are your thoughts? Is it beholden on tax payers to pay for much lovelier homes and luxuries for others? Really?
z
20 comments:
I don't have a problem helping those who are truly in need; giving them a stepping stone to a better life.
But this is an atrocity. As you said, the taxpayers funding this cannot afford such nice surroundings. What then is the motivation for using taxpayer funded assistance as a hand up if you'll be going into 'worse' circumstances?
I could scream.
Brooke, I'm with you on both counts.
trust me, screaming doesn't help :-)
this and the food stamp issue reminds of Detroit- one of the first welfare towns in the the US--
and look -it was such a success that you can buy an house for a $1--
We in the US had better wake up!
Carol-CS
Why would anyone of these parasites be motivated to work? Section 8 housing, food stamps, child care income, school vouchers, rent control, rent subsidies, free housing, low cost mortgages ( Fannie & Freddie ='s market collapse ).
( "Obama gung to take care of me...Obama gung to pay my rent / mortgage and put gas in my car. Obama gung to take care of me"...2008 )
Socialism in any form breeds laziness, indifference...kills individuality and stifles opportunities. What's the point of working when one can count on getting everything unearned and free...because I'm oppressed or "poor". Bullshit.
Back in 2005 I had to fly to Dallas and after that Houston for layovers. This was after Katrina and they had shipped half of the "helpless" population around the country.
We tried to check into several hotels in the area close to the airports. Weston's Hyatts, Marriots or Hiltons. Didn't matter.
The lobbies were over run with the "helpless" running, screaming through the hotels halls. Lobbies and common areas were filled with garbage and hooting and hollering "youths" running around unrestrained. It was mob rule.
The hotel staff at the check in counter looked mortified...afraid and unable to check the chaos that had been forced onto them.
Approaching the hotels....we saw open windows with clothes, sheets, towels hanging out the windows....people hanging out of the windows throwing things down to their friends on the ground. Crap flapping in the breeze from these windows. I can't imagine what stinking havoc they reaped upon these fine hotels.
Places where people are normally civilized, polite and respectful of their temporary neighbors.
The government gave these animals shelter. And good people thought they were being decent by helping out.
60 years later....3 generations later....and little, very little has changed. The parasite crowd sure hasn't.
We stayed in a Holiday Inn 30 miles from the airport, rather than in any "Little New Orleans".
Is it an attempt to bring down those neighborhoods by leftists who feel the rich shouldn't have the opportunity to live in nicer 'hoods?
Well, Z...it is all about 'equality' don't you know? Even if people who work and earn the right to any kind of luxury, well, they have to give up some of it, so that others can live that way, too, without working for it.
I'm all for helping anyone who really needs it..I don't want to see anyone without food and shelter, but if they can work for it,they should, and certainly not expect handouts equal to the style of living of those footing the bill for them.
When I read these things, I am again reminded of what our esteemed leader said, before being elected, when he said he was not for just signing over checks to them, but would leave open the possiblity of OTHER FORMS OF REPARATIONS which would be acceptable to him.
(Chicago Tribune 11/14/2004)
Those 'forms' are becoming more prevalent each passing day.
Reparations, redistribution of wealth...call it anything you like, but it is still all the same.
It's like Kathy Shaidle always says on her blog... the "poor" are the rich Jesus warned us about.
Carol..be we are NOT, most of us. you're so right.
Impertinent; what a story. thanks for sharing that. It's mortifying to think Americans act like that.
I have related a story I heard on the radio; a guy called in and said his mother is a nurse who volunteered her time at the Dome where many Katrina victims were holed up...the nurse told her son the katrina victim teens were sitting on cots all day long smoking, not helping anybody sweep up, empty ash trays, NOTHING...just talking and smoking and eating.
They had to bring busloads of Mexicans in to clean up after them.
I simply can't imagine it......
that hotel story is shocking and I'm sure it wasn't a one-off situation, either.
Horrid.
Karen, what a quote...that is QUITE something. Much to ponder...wow
Jan, yes, it's all about not wanting anybody to do better, to have more. I told a friend I had lunch with today that "this administration can't seem to stand seeing really successful Americans....." She told me Obama was hammering on people with private planes. SO WHAT? They are that rich and worked that hard to have what they want but they can't have them?
Of course, when you ask people in Santa Monica about the low cost housing, almost NOBODY likes it....the liberals are the worst from what I hear ...they're all about "Not in MY neighborhood"......I can't go into details because the man I know who has heard plenty of that asked me not to....suffice to say that's exactly the case. I was frankly a little surprised.
There could be no subsidized housing abuse... if there were no subsidized housing.
True, beamish... but not extremely helpful here.
What would you do with people too old to work anymore and who can't afford housing because they worked all their lives at jobs that didn't allow much savings?
On the other hand, I have a friend whose mother's dying in the next few weeks......she is very well off, as is my friend; they're getting all the hospice free, Medicare, etc etc......they're on the phone constantly arranging getting things paid for elsewhere.
While that IS the way things are set up, it's something that should also be addressed.
I can't go into my own personal situation here, but owning businesses and doing well isn't a guarantee of easy retirement either, believe me. I wish I could say more but anonymity and my own probably too private nature prevent it.
Plus, sometimes we must pay to help relatives, etc.....finances with many people I know are very tough for a variety of reasons that were totally uncontrollable...
they lose everything......they get kicked onto the street, beamish?
Though I know liberals can't STAND to face these truths, life can be rough, S*** happens (GASP!), and things don't always go like we'd like them......
WE understand that; it's really one of the major differences between realistic, informed Conservatives and pie-in-the-sky, elitist "not on MY block!" libs....
We try to help privately, without going to the government; my own family went ONCE, when Grandfather arrived with his father, Mom and siblings in around 1912 or something...his mom died immediately upon landing in America, right off of the boat, from pneumonia, I think...so they had to put the baby girl, Grandpa's little sis, in an orphanage for few months while everybody else went to work......
I suppose that could be considered a form of 'relief'.......that's it. We never took a penny again.
And, by the way, Grandpa became the owner of 3 of the best butcher shops/grocery stores in Troy, NY....with a 9th grade education, having arrived here with ZERO English and NO "English as a Second language" classes.
Odd that ARmenians could do that but Hispanics can't (more leftist rubbish to justify their unions negotiating more money for teachers who can teach 2nd language)
That's really the 'soft bigotry of low expectations' Bush so aptly pointed out.
When the system is designed to steal and tell lies, you can’t have a conversation about how it is amoral, unethical and unfair. Of course it is, that’s the whole point.
You know, Major...something's really UP.
I have a wonderful blogger friend who says she's had parts of blogs disappear from her post files; she's seen information on Google which has gaping areas gone that were there before; someone's whitewashing a lot about this president and it's getting a little (dare I say) spooky?
Seriously...what is going ON?
I mean, you read SNOPES to see if something's true, and if it's a Conservative SLAM, it's TRUE TRUE TRUE, END OF STORY.
If it's a bash on Libs that can't be denied, it's TRUE AND FALSE...or, several times, I've seen TRUE...BUT...and they give reasons why that might have happened, with an excuse for whoever did it or said it, etc!!!. It's hilarious if it weren't so serious.
The other day, I Googled Obama and his not knowing we only have 50 States ...remember the video, how he thinks really hard and then says we have 57 states and then goes on to say he's got some to visit? Well, Snopes says "MIXTURE OF TRUE AND FALSE INFORMATION" ... And it says he was tired and that's why! It's not FALSE, he DID SAY IT, whether he was tired or NOT!! Unbelievable!!
Yet, when Michelle Bachmann says something the msm deems wrong, there is NO EXCUSE........ya, SHE's not tired with all she does, right? :-)
That's just a small example...so many things are going on and so many Americans aren't hearing it, or are believing the msm, or draw inferences from such misinformation...and stuff disappearing that casts a bad light on Obama!?
I really never thought we would see things THIS bad here in AMerica with our media.......
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/57states.asp
check that out...astonishing. WHAT a whitewash.
"how he thinks really hard and then says we have 57 states and then goes on to say he's got some to visit?"
I've always believed from the moment I heard it....that he had an uncontrollable Freudian slip.
His love of Islam and himself being a Muslim...he was referring to the 57 Muslim states that exist today.
Look that up.
The man...cannot be trusted. But he will reign again.
And America will be a talking point that the left has always desired. Laugh if you want....but I truly believe we're closer to extinction then we've ever been. It's not a matter of a century...it's a matter of 20 years maybe.
Yet we see all the signs of our disintegration from illegal invaders to socialists to our own pawns and parasites.
The hemorrhaging of 30 billion annually to 3rd world countries where that is the 2nd largest source of income!
The exporting of whole populations from the southern hemisphere to the North Americas. With the intent to conquer, reclaim and create their own failed "societies" within our borders.
On top of that...we also have unchecked ( even after 911 ) immigration from muslim states that demand our compliance with their draconian, barbaric systems and beliefs. Which isn't religious...but POLITICAL. Sharia....is Political. Period.
I know what sharia is.....I know what islam is firsthand. Does any Marine who served in these shitholes believe that their beliefs are harmonious or compatible with American values?
We all knew that we'd never defeat the monster....kick them in the ass from time to time, yes. Harass and frustrate them, yes. Overwhelm them with superior fire power, yes. But totally defeat them? Not a chance.
So...reality suggests that our only solution is that if we can't do the latter...then we need to ensure our security....by refusing to admit them to America.
But PC driven by the commie left will never allow that. So...I believe we can only become more divided, more Balkanized and civil war or a division of the states is the only logical answer.
I don't want this...but as I look around and see the anger and resentment in everyday America....against the taxes, against the unjustified burdens of being forced to support parasites and illegals....the turn against God...the turn against country....there's little left but to fight.
Major, what scares me the most is the MEDIA and the lack of curiosity ...that they didn't wonder when Obama said he barely new Ayers and then we found out the amount of close connections between them...or the way he treated Joe the Plumber, or how they believed he NEVER heard that Jeremiah Wright had such hate for America, or his background of communists and socialists, or his having had ZERO experience at practically anything, that they let him call himself a Constitutional professor when he wasn't, that anybody would pay a young man with no experience for two books!? THey're not curious because they back him and all he's pushing on our poor country.
And what about the Wednesday night cocktail /celeb parties (are they still going on?) and the extravagant trips Michelle's going on, and the flying to NYC for a date, etc etc.............where is the curiosity? Where is the treatment of Obama by the media that Bush got? (don't make me laugh!)
this is VERY frightening to me......we can live through anything, we Americans, but a DISHONEST MEDIA? I don't think so; this is how Mussolini came to power, how Hitler thrived, you name it......the people are being duped and the media's the problem.
WHERE are a true Americans? Where are two Conservatives doing what Woodward and Bernstein did?
Of course, there is Breitbart and a few others, but they just get SLAMMED and the left doesn't even realize he is RIGHT...well, they won't let themselves see it because their 'gods' have set him up like they did FOX, etc., Alinsky-style...like "anything HE DOES, or THEY DO AT FOX, or WHATEVER is EVIL" And people actually are buying into it..
True, beamish... but not extremely helpful here.
What would you do with people too old to work anymore and who can't afford housing because they worked all their lives at jobs that didn't allow much savings?
Pay to play. They were living beyond their means when working if they couldn't save to get through times when they weren't working. Rent something smaller and cheaper, or reconnect with the great outdoors. God have put plenty of free bugs on the Earth to eat, for those who will work hard enough to catch them.
Ugh.
Maybe Mr. AOW and I should opt for medical bankruptcy and move into one of these units -- so much nicer than where we live now. Sheesh.
beamish; doesn't make sense. Almost no family makes enough to save enough for retirement.
You know that.
Now what...."let them eat bugs?"
AOW .... exactly. This is sort of like encouraging fathers not to live with moms and children so they get welfare money, right?
Very touchy situation.
beamish; doesn't make sense. Almost no family makes enough to save enough for retirement.
You know that.
Now what...."let them eat bugs?"
I'm going to guess that the majority of people who have reached retirement age are old enough to have kids that are grown and fending for themselves.
When you're reduced to eating bugs, you find out what you need and what you want are never the same things. Most people will realize that before they're reduced to eating bugs.
I don't care what your income level was before retiring, no government programs alone are going to maintain you at that level of income after retirement, and they're not supposed to.
If you're "working" all your life to be a drain on society via social programs when you retire, you deserve all the hardship you planned for yourself.
Aw see? I posted facts and you ignore them You just want to perpetuate narrow views and lies, don't you?
Isn't the idea that you deserve and are "entitled" to accomodations at the public's expense because you squandered your life a rather "narrow view?" What about the equally valid point that you should go piss up a rope for your "welfare?"
Nice jop being just another right wing hate monger. Look at the nasty posts you illicit. Proud of yourself?
I don't hate people who can't afford to take care of themselves. I just wonder where they were when I couldn't afford a Bugatti and had to settle for a Buick.
beamish...don't know how that got through.
Bd's not here anymore.
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