[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 31, Number 47 (Monday, November 27, 1995)]
[Pages 2051-2052]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Blair Homeless Shelter

November 22, 1995

    I'd like to just say one word, if I might. I want to say that 
Hillary and I came here to be with you at Thanksgiving and to celebrate 
Thanksgiving with our country because we wanted to thank the people who 
run this wonderful service here for their commitment, for their service.
    I also want to say a word of thanks to my friend Henry Cisneros, the 
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, because

[[Page 2052]]

he put together a homeless initiative for the District of Columbia that 
helps this project and many others, because after I became President, I 
said I was just tired of seeing people on the street. I want us to do 
something to give people some hope, to give people a place to be.
    And on this Thanksgiving Day, Mr. Mayor, I say again, we are honored 
to be citizens of the District of Columbia. We are honored to have the 
chance to be with you and to work with people in DC to try to deal with 
the problems here. We know we have a lot of challenges in dealing with 
homelessness, not the least of which is that the fastest growing group 
of homeless people are women and their children. And we've got to stay 
after this.
    I'd like to say one other thing, too, on this Thanksgiving. 
Yesterday I made an announcement that an agreement for peace has been 
made in Bosnia. A lot of people today are asking questions about how it 
will all be implemented. I'd just like to ask you to think of one human 
fact. In that little country so much smaller than ours, in that little 
bitty country, there are one million homeless families because of that 
war. So I hope on this Thanksgiving we can help more of our own people 
to find homes and we can help them to go home.
    Thank you, and God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 1:49 p.m. In his remarks, he referred to 
Mayor Marion Barry of the District of Columbia. A tape was not available 
for verification of the content of these remarks.