We have lots of parochial schools closing in our area because of lack of funds.

Too bad the Pope can't sell some of his wealth and fund the parochial schools. The parents around here are extremely agitated. They don't know where they will send their children for a parochial education.

I went to parochial school all my life. It's the best thing my parents ever did for me. I learned grammar, punctuation, well, let's just say I had a very good education. And my mother paid $15.00 per month for me to go to parochial high school. WITH THE NUNS!!!! Back when nuns still dressed like nuns.

I'll never forget when I went back for my 10th High School reunion.

This woman approached me, wearing a dress, nylons and makeup. I took one look at this 6 foot tall big woman and said 'who are you?" and she laughed and said "I'm your old history teacher, Sister Johanna".

I just looked at her in that dress and I blurted out "you have legs??"

Now how dumb was I. Everybody was hysterical.

Yes, it's called the Housing First approach (in Seattle nicknamed "bunks for drunks"). New York City does it too and other cities are starting to also.

The point isn't to give them free apartments to be lazy and drink all they want (though it might look that way) the point is to get them off the streets and out of hospital emergency rooms. Homeless people use up a lot of money in acute care services when they have accidents, are victims of violent crimes (etc.) that can be prevented by keeping them in a safe place, so in the long run it saves the city money.

Requiring people to be sober before letting them indoors (a lot of shelters have that rule) doesn't mean people get sober, for some it means they stay on the streets. With Housing First they're given stability and then treatment as appropriate. It's not just for people with addictions but also with chronic severe mental illness (who are homeless 'coz there are very few hospital psych beds anymore).

There's a super webcomic called Bums: Why There are No "Happy Hobos" by Peter Bagge [ ] that gets into all the reasons people become homeless and stay trapped in homelessness. Check it out, it's brief but really good.