Well, it is breaking news, I suppose. It just didn’t happen overnight.

Whatever, pray tell, are you talking about Craig? Obviously, I’m talking about HomewardBound of the Grand Valley’s announcement that it’s closing its emergency shelter on North Avenue early next year. The announcement hit Facebook on Thursday night (don’t these folks know you always announce bad news late on a Friday???) with a PR letter explaining the woes and hardships of being in the homeless business in today’s world.

Wow, that’s a little harsh, Craig, you may say. Maybe. But as Sonny Corleone might say, “There’s a lotta money in that $#!T, Pop.” And for folks in the homeless business in our country, the words could not ring truer. Don’t believe me? Just have a quick look-see into what’s been going on in California and Los Angeles and the missing billions and sizes of salaries of the folks in charge and come back and try to convince me homelessness isn’t seriously big business in the good ol’ USofA.

And no, I’m not saying homelessness is something the government shouldn’t address. Quite the opposite. My problem is how government addresses it. But for many of you who believe me to be a right-wing, fascist, dictator wannabe, you’re going to go on your tangent the way you go anyways, and to that I say, I just don’t care.

About you, not the homeless. So, let’s get into the heart of the matter.

Which brings me back to the Thursday night announcement. The one every local news organization was posting about except, of course, The Business Times. Which initially bothered me as I went to bed. Mainly because we are on deadline Thursday night and finishing the coming paper on Friday morning for our printer. Now other media outlets in town might say, “See, they can’t do breaking news like we can!” To which I will give the same reply I’ve given for 25 years, “Correct. We don’t do breaking news. We do accurate and in-depth news.”

And in this case, we don’t know what we don’t know from the little we do know.

Here’s the flip-side. I have no idea what Tim and Brandon are looking to put to print on any of this – as a good publisher shouldn’t, because I don’t dictate what goes into the paper – but I did ask Tim this morning if we had something on it, to which he indicated we did. So HomewardBound gets a mention. But a mention only because that’s all we have. We’ll follow it up for the next paper because we certainly have questions for HomewardBound and its chief benefactor: The City of Grand Junction.

So, as we’ve done for the past 25 years we’ll ask questions and then print the answers with attribution to whoever said what.

As for the conspiracy theories that folks think The Business Times dabbles in, that’s reserved for this space. Yes, that’s tongue firmly implanted in cheek, although more than a few of you (again, from both sides) will say, “Look, Craig even admits it!”

Anyways, here goes another “theory.” It’s also what I think we’ll find out as we investigate the story.

HomewardBound is in this current situation because of its management. And it has no one to blame. Many will buy into the “lack of government funding” (which has an element of truth, but not what you think it is) and “donations” that were the gist of its press release. The fact is HomewardBound is in the homeless business. And in order to be in that business what does one need? That’s right, homeless folks.

And I don’t mean families who’ve hit hard times and need help for a short time. I don’t know a person not willing to help there. I’m talking about the ones who were attracted to Grand Junction by the tented day spa and salon funded by tax dollars on which HomewardBound designed its new business plan. Now add on the multi-million dollar property HomewardBound was counting on the city to buy it for it to expand its operations, and you have what? A business plan that was depending on getting every penny it could from the government to exist.

And those dollars don’t just come from the city; they need to come from the state and the feds. Make no mistake, HomewardBound relied on tax dollars.

After all, didn’t HomewardBound just ask the city for its entire budget for homelessness? It’s almost like HomewardBound had an insider or two on city council knowing all the money would be directed its way. Coincidentally, our homeless population doubled in the past two years as that’s occurred.

In HomewardBound’s letter it talks about Pathways’ mission to the community to help those experiencing homelessness, who everyone has a heart and charity for. But that vision appears to have gotten lost in the big business of homelessness.

Fact is cities across the nation have the same problem. But the problem is the need for more money, not the mission. We would do well to understand the economic concept of “what the government subsidizes the people always get more of,” and that usually comes with more of a problem. This certainly applies to homelessness.

Ironically, the opportunity now is that our homeless problem gets the attention, and prayerfully, the solution it deserves.

In Truth and freedom.

Craig Hall is owner and publisher of The Business Times. Reach him at 424-5133 or publisher@thebusinesstimes.com