Transportation

There are many "Catch-22's" when you are Homeless.  The system is in place to help you, yet the entire purpose behind the system is to get you off of its roles as quickly as possible. 

One of the requirements of most Homeless Shelters in the Savannah area are that you get a job as soon as you can so you can prove that you are getting to a place where you don't need the shelter.  It is an understandable and even noble goal.  One that most residents and shelter organization feel is goal number one to help the resident not only earn their own money, but for the psychological uplift that work brings to a person.  Again, a most noble goal.

One of the problems in achieving this goal is that here in Savannah most of the entry level and blue collar jobs available are located outside the city limits.  Which brings up one of the problems with this goal, making money is easy to do; finding a sustainable source of income is not so easy.  Sure, getting a temp job or a job in construction or retail are fairly easy, except that come October most of these jobs dry up and don't  come back until spring.  Being a port city, Savannah has quite a few warehouse and factory jobs that are available to individuals for long term assignments (I say assignments because most of these jobs are through employment agencies.).  The problem is, again, that most of these jobs are located outside of the city limits.

Transportation is a HUGE issue with the Homeless.  The need to be able to get back and forth to work or school (many Homeless try to use this time to better themselves) or to get to the store is often a daily project in and of itself.  Someone is always looking to the few that have their own transportation to pitch and help the many who do not, trading gas money and favors for rides.  But many miss appointments or end up using bikes and their feet to traverse sometimes 7 miles to work each day.

The solution would be simple.  Public Transportation providing shelters with a block of monthly passes that the shelters can cycle through their populace until folks can afford to buy their own passes.  Also, more and extended bus loops to areas that have the jobs from Savannah proper.  But in these uncharitable economic times CAT (Chatham Area Transit) does not seem want to put their feet forward to extend these options to the Homeless because of the economic burden it will put on their bottom line.

 I understand., many times decisions come down to money and the ability to pay...which is why banks got the lion's share of stimulus money and job creation and small business got little...even though the people who go through these programs and get jobs would put the money they earned right back into the economy stimulating the economy and shoring up the Nation's financial foundation...digressing again.  Or maybe I'm not.  I want the city to see, to realize that addressing this small need in the Homeless community goes leaps and bounds toward thinning out the ranks of those who are Homeless.  Making it possible for a fella to get to a job makes getting and holding a job possible.  The little bit of up front money used to offer say 10 tickets a shelter per month would come back 1,000 times over in the money poured back into the economy by a working populace.

I'm just putting that out there...please comment and let me know what you think.