Just one question on ending homelessness
Federal homelessness czar Philip Mangano came to talk to us today about encouraging data — nationally and in St. Louis — which show steep reductions in the numbers of chronically homeless people on the street — reportedly down 20 percent here in St. Louis.
He was joined by Bill Siedhoff, director of St. Louis’ Department of Human Services.
Mangano was an advocate for the homeless in Massachusetts who took a radical approach to dealing with homelessness — he proposed ending it rather than managing it.
He was recruited by the Bush administration to run the Interagency Council on Homelessness and is a leading figure in the national movement to end homelessness in ten years — mainly through helping local communities develop their own 10 year plans that include strategies of prevention, quick provision of housing for those who suddenly find themselves homeless, and supportive housing for the chronic homeless.
Click on the link below to hear just one question to Philip Mangano on ending homelessness:
Just one question on ending homelessness
Update: Here’s Jake Wagman’s take on Mangano on the Political Fix.
Eddie Roth writes about education, social justice, public safety, transportation, legal affairs and historic preservation. He joined the Post-Dispatch editorial page in 2008 after six years as an editorial writer with the Dayton Daily News. But he is not new to St. Louis. Eddie grew up in Webster Groves and south St. Louis County. He's a lawyer who for many years practiced with a downtown firm, and was active in civic affairs, including serving a term on the St. Louis Police Board. He and his wife, Jeanne, and their three daughters, Emily, Julia and Alice, live in the Shaw Neighborhood.
When it comes to community organizing, he endorses Quentin Crisp's advice: Rather than keeping up with the Joneses, it's better to pull them down to your level. 
