18 AUG 2015 :: Housing and Immigration

I was browsing Facebook earlier and came across some items of interest to me...  immigration remedies of Donald Trump and Public Housing.

I responded to the idea that just because babies happen to be born here they automatically become citizens.  I have considered this issue before.  I think it must be from way back when, maybe when we first settled the US... to assure the new residents that they would be US citizens instead of English or French or whatever else existed.

I don't really know the history, and I didn't look it up because it wasn't something that was important enough to me to do that.  I am sure others have already done that.  My view is that just being born in a foreign country doesn't make a child a citizen of that country, they are a citizen of the country their mother belongs to.  I hate to think of my child not being a US citizen if I happen to be traveling and it decided to be born.

I have heard about dual citizenship... but not sure of the details...whether the child becomes a citizen of the parent's different countries, or of the mother's original citizen country and the place it is born.

This is an issue because of all the laws we have to deal with now... for courts, for benefits, for education, for a lot of costly things.  If money wasn't involved, would anyone care?

It is easy to dismiss the humanity of so many people because they are not like you, are from a different place, speak a different language.  The more fearful we become, the more desperate we become... and we make bad decisions when we are desperate.

America doesn't have to fight much of the battles it has created with the immigration dilemma.  We can register people who want to enter the country, take a zillion forms of ID to make sure we can track them if they decide to do wrong  --  like fingerprints, hand prints, voice prints, videos and facial recognition and body shape details, DNA, tracking information like DOB (and birth certificates), family contacts, license numbers (International Drivers Licenses/IDs could be required), medical histories, education histories, create tax account numbers for work records and tax payments, etc.  I don't think too many criminals are going to willingly go through that kind of process. 

Good people who just want to provide for their families and escape the horrors of their home countries will apply, will go to meet their loved ones already in the US, and then try to find jobs.  With language barriers, they are not going to start out with the jobs everyone else wants.  These people will not be a burden on the tax systems, they will add to its finances. They will find their own and build a life there.  Most of these workers are just trying to help their families, work hard, and stay out of trouble...they contribute to America!

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In the public housing arena, I came across a headline that said someone making over a half million dollars a year was still in a public housing unit...

I found it hard to believe, but in the limited details of the article, it was mentioned that the family moved into the unit in 1974 and wasn't over the income guidelines until 2011 (approximately)...it wasn't mentioned what the income came from.  Maybe they have an internet fortune...all from a computer in their den.  It is also true that everyone in a house is considered income for the government.  Maybe the money belongs to one of the kids... 40 years in one apartment would suggest there might be kids in the picture.

People seem to think that poor families are somehow not like them... that they don't have family and friends, that they don't have lives, that they don't become part of the neighborhood, build memories, create a life.

I also commented that a 40 year old apartment probably wasn't worth much...
I mentioned that they could be in a building that was part subsidized and part not subsidized.
Maybe they could purchase their own unit, or the whole building...
Maybe the residents are old and disabled... ready to retire... have most of their money from all the things they struggled for in those forty years...

The possibilities are really endless.

I did notice the article cited over a million HUD units throughout the US and its territories... there was also a graphic about the how many of those were over the income guidelines, with one category at $1 to $10K over... imagine how many of those people were just a few dollars over the limits... should they be kicked onto the street for it?  What if they lose their job because they were kicked out?  Then they would have to get on the ten-year waiting list all over again.  Not a smart idea.

The other thing I noticed in the graphics was that in the HUD units that had people over the income guidelines there was over half a million people on the waiting lists.  I think the problem is a bit bigger than just one family having a lot of money suddenly...  maybe they won the lottery, or inherited something, or won a lawsuit.   I wonder....

Ownership is my personal viewpoint... people need to become permanently established so they can build their lives in one place.  Homeless families become a different statistic if they begin a new life with home ownership. 

Government subsidies are when the resident pays 30% of their income and the government supplements the remainder of the rents due.  Maybe the government can find a way to make a mortgage 30% of the resident's income and not have to pay money to supplement it... the government would be getting income instead of subsidizing housing.

I think there are better options... but we don't look for them.  We just complain and create media headlines.  I suppose there are other political issues involved, too... like who gets the contracts and who makes the money and who influences the decisions and... but long-term solutions are what we need, for housing and a lot of other problems we face as a country.

What would you suggest?