>For that price we could be paying 3 years of rent on a decent apartment anywhere outside Manhattan. We could be putting a down payment on a house for them & then employ them in some sort of works program at $20/hour. These are things that could actually allow them to start building their life back up.

I'm not sure there is any incentive to solve the problem. And there is no accountability for anyone in government it seems, on either side of the aisle, at any level of government.