Mangano Has Left the Building

Bush Homeless Czar Replaced

The National Coalition for the Homeless asked for a new director of the InterAgency Council on Homelessness to set a new direction for the federal government. The Obama Administration has made that change this last week. Philip Mangano was let go, and replaced by Peter Dougherty formerly of the Department of Veterans Affairs as acting director. This is a huge step, and it will make a huge difference in national policy toward addressing homelessness. I have never been a fan of Mr. Mangano after listening to his same tired speech over and over. I met with him once in DC as part of my position with the National Coalition for the Homeless Board of Directors, and could not stand to hear him spin and pass off propaganda as fact. So, I skipped the other meetings with Mr. Mangano over the last few years.

David Corn wrote the book Hubris: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandel and the Selling of the Iraq War with Michael Isikoff, a perfect book for the career of Philip Mangano and his quest to end homelessness. He has a lot of nerve claiming a success when homelessness is up across the country and more and more children have become homeless in America. He wrote this amazing piece of fiction upon his departure taking credit for a decrease in homelessness (fiction), re-framed the countries response to homelessness (except in New Orleans), and I think he took credit for the election of the first African American President. He used the same Abolishinist themes in his going away letter that he used in every speech that he made over the last seven years in 350 different cities.

My big issue was that mainstream programs like public housing and the voucher program were decimated over the last 10 years, and Mangano never spoke up to criticize his boss for proposing these policies. He calls this the Abolitionist Agenda, but I am not sure that John Brown and Frederick Douglas would support this characterization. This was more like the Separate But Equal agenda where you try to solve homelessness for one group (long term homeless), while all the rest of the populations suffer. This is not a Housing First model as detailed in his letter of resignation. This is a Housing After You Hit Rock Bottom approach. Homeless people who have suffered the longest will be offered housing while all the other affordable housing in the community will be condemned and taken down.

Thank you for leaving the stage, Mr. Mangano. Now we can get to work solving this national embarrassment of homelessness.

Brian
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