Homelessness is a condition that can happen to anyone, especially in an economy that is unstable. Some facts of homelessness are that homelessness is on the rise, and some of the states with the largest homeless populations are California, Alaska, Idaho, and Hawaii. 1 out of 50 homeless people are children, which means 1.5 children are homeless every year. Veterans are more likely than other populations to become homeless, as nearly 40 percent of homeless men are veterans.
Reference:
www.pbs.org
December 20, 2013
Homelessness in the United States is an area of concern for social service providers, government officials, policy professionals, and society at large.[1] The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in January 2012 annual point-in-time count found that 633,782 people across America were homeless. With 2007 as a benchmark, the data from the report showed a 6.8 percent decline in homelessness among individuals, a 3.7 percent decline of homeless families, a 13.1 percent decline of the unsheltered homeless population, and a 19.3 percent decline in persons experiencing chronic homelessness. During the overall count, 62,619 veterans were found homeless nationwide.[2] One out of 50 children or 1.5 million children in America will be homeless each year.[3] There were an estimated 57,849 homeless veterans estimated in the United States during January 2013; or 12 percent of all homeless adults. Just under 8 percent of homeless U.S. veterans are female. Texas, California and Florida have the highest numbers of unaccompanied homeless youth under the age of 18; comprising 58% of the total homeless under 18 youth population [4] Because of turnover in the homeless population, the total number of people who experience homelessness for at least a few nights during the course of a year is thought to be considerably higher than point-in-time counts. A 2000 study estimated the number of such people to be between 2.3 million and 3.5 million.[5][
Report misleads on those without shelter.
The Great Recession is causing continued hardship for many Americans. Yet a recent report found thathomelessness is down. I wish that were true. The research, from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, says homelessness decreased by nearly 4% over the past year. But it doesn't actually measure homelessness.
Instead, it looks at people who are in shelters or transitional housing and the number of people who are outside on a single January night. Not included are those doubled up or couch surfing because they can't afford their own place. Neither are people in hospitals, mental health or substance abuse centers, jails or prisons with nowhere to go upon release.
One night?
The problem isn't just the count's narrow scope; its methods are flawed. For the count of people in shelters and transitional housing, service providers report their numbers on the designated night. But this just measures capacity. If the number goes down, this could mean either fewer homeless or fewer beds for them.
The "street" part of the count tries to measure unmet need by counting people in places "not meant for human habitation," such as streets, parks, alleys, subway tunnels, all-night movie theaters, abandoned buildings, roofs, stairwells, caves, campgrounds and vehicles.
HUD sets the guidelines, but communities have discretion in how they count. A few use sophisticated statistical methods. Most simply organize volunteers to fan out and make judgments about who is homeless, avoiding locations where they feel unsafe. How even the best prepared volunteers can cover large expanses in a few hours is anyone's guess.
Local policies can also affect the count. For example, cities are increasingly making it a crime to sleep in public places. If the street count goes down, is it because need is down or because there is greater cause to fear arrest, driving people further into hiding?
Punishing the homeless
Similarly, in some cities, families seeking shelter can be threatened with removal of their children; families living outside have extra incentive to avoid detection.
To its credit, the Obama administration has made a commitment to ending homelessness and, to measure progress, it needs data. Methods pioneered in New York City that statistically adjust for the built-in inaccuracies of the "street" count could significantly improve it. But the data must not only be accurate; they must also be theright data, and that's the larger issue. Homelessness happens over time, not on a single night — and it reflects a deeper crisis.
According to Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies, low-income households suffer an unprecedented housing cost burden, forcing many to choose between rent and food. Too often, homelessness is the result.
Another reason to doubt HUD's reporting: On Thursday, the Department of Veterans Affairs released statistics showing that homelessness among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans is sharply rising despite new efforts to help them.
Ending homelessness requires closing the gap between the need for housing and its availability. It requires recognizing housing as a basic human right, and enacting policies to ensure it is available.
Homelessness can and must be ended. But it won't be if our leaders report that there is no crisis.
Maria Foscarinis, a lawyer, is executive director of the National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty.
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Why I give money to homeless people
It's so easy to walk by them like they don't exist. But is it right?
Pay it forward. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
The first thing I see most mornings as I stumble sleepily from the subway to begin my jaunt to work are homeless people sitting in the station with outstretched cups, right at the top of the escalator.
Near my office in downtown Washington, D.C., homeless people are a common sight. They seem to fit into every nook and cranny of the area buildings. They sleep at night in the doorways of businesses, usually with makeshift tents constructed using newspaper and cardboard.
I don't work in a downtrodden neighborhood. My office is just off K Street. The White House is only a few blocks away. Homeless people sit just feet away from people sipping their coffee at sidewalk cafés. Sometimes they glare and mutter, but often the homeless and the coffee-sippers seem oblivious to each other.
Lawyers and lobbyists dressed in expensive suits step over homeless people lying in the streets, their wingtips inches from "I'm hungry" signs. One woman sits on the corner wearing a newspaper hat. It looks like something you'd do to amuse your children, but she's likely protecting herself from the heat.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated that there were more than 630,000 homeless people in the United States in 2012. I bet the number is far bigger.
I have no consistent policy in dealing with the homeless. I've given them money, taken them to stores and restaurants, prayed with them, and talked to them. I like to buy the Street Sensenewspapers sold by homeless vendors in Washington. In Boston, a similar paper is called Spare Change.
But I've also hustled by the homeless as if they did not exist. In fact, that's what I do most often.
For whatever reason, I've never given money to the people at the Metro. I usually avert my gaze. It's no consolation to people who are hungry and suffering, I know, but I do feel guilty about it. I often wonder if the more skilled panhandlers can sense that.
One night I felt compelled to walk with a homeless man to an ATM, where I withdrew $60 in cash for him. I did this alone in the dark despite him candidly telling me he had just been released from prison for stabbing someone.
That confession was actually what convinced me to give him money. He had laid out a specific set of needs the funds would meet. His honesty about his rap sheet made me decide to trust he'd use the money wisely.
The homeless can be particular. When I worked in northern Virginia, I used to give money to a homeless man named Terry. He liked to use the money to get barbecue sandwiches. I ran into him not long ago. I told Terry I wasn't going to be in the neighborhood much, but reminded him that my church prepares meals for the homeless on Fridays.
Terry said he'd go if that's what I thought he should do, but he didn't care for the food there. He also didn't like the atmosphere.
I once took a homeless man named Tim to a restaurant to get something to eat. He ordered 24 chicken wings with three different kinds of sauces. After placing the order, he asked, "Is that cool?" I was expecting he'd get a hamburger, but I wasn't going to begrudge him his buffalo wings.
I've had tougher encounters, too, including with a gentleman who politely tells me he hopes I choke on my next meal each time I walk by. I don't take it personally — I get off easier than most other passersby.
But I've also had some moving experiences. "You know how I am going to pay you back?" one mentally disabled young man asked earnestly. "Someday, when I have money, I am going to help somebody else." The printed word cannot convey the simple sincerity he radiated.
There are a million excuses to pass the homeless by, many of them valid. I use them all almost every day. For many of these people, struggling with substance abuse and mental illness, I could empty out my bank account and at best help them only temporarily.
In other cases, the assistance could be counterproductive or even foolish. Many will use any cash they get to buy drugs or booze. Others may lie about their circumstances.
Yet even when I convince myself to keep walking, I can't block out these verses from Matthew: "Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?'"
"And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'"
Every panhandler I help could be a scam artist. But each one I pass by could be Jesus.
A former journalist for the Associated Press and the Miami Herald, she reported from Latin America for Time, Business Week and the Financial Times.
While the slight decline in the total number of homeless Americans in 2013 is something to cheer about, the number of homeless kids in our country has hit an all-time high and a huge swath of Americans are still without housing, left behind by the economic recovery and a shrinking social safety net.
“The economy is recovering, but it doesn’t seem like that is trickling down,” said Nan Roman, president and chief executive of the National Alliance to End Homelessness. “If you’re making minimum wage, you’re really not making enough anywhere in the country for housing.”
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reported that homelessness dropped by nearly 4 percent from 2012 to 2013, according to HUD’s Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, released in late November.
The report found that 610,000 people were homeless in January 2013. Sixty-five percent werein shelters; the rest were living outdoors, either on the street, in cars, or in tents. The 2013 figure is down 9 percent from 2007.
Some think the actual number of homeless is far greater because the HUD report does not include people “doubled up” with friends or relatives, those living short-term in motels, or those who simply evaded being counted.
A number that is not dropping is the number of homeless schoolchildren. The U.S. Department of Education found that the number of homeless kids increased by 10 percent in the 2012–13 school year over the previous year, to a record 1.2 million kids.
“The numbers are still going up,” said Eric Tars, director of human rights and children’s rights programs for the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. “The recession is not over for the vast majority of people living at or near poverty in this country.”
Officials in more than half of 25 large and midsize cities agree. They reported a 3 percent rise in homelessness in 2013, according to a U.S. Conference of Mayors survey in December.
Moreover, cities expect homelessness to spike in 2014 because of looming federal funding cuts in food stamps and the end of long-term unemployment benefits after Christmas, which could push those barely making ends meet into homelessness.
There are some success stories. Efforts to get the chronically homeless and veterans off the streets have made significant headway.
The number of homeless vets plummeted by 8 percent in 2013, down 24 percent from 2007, HUD said, as the government pushed to get disabled vets into permanent housing with services and to give short-term assistance to veterans undergoing hardship so they do not become homeless.
“There’s a lot of political will around veterans now,” Roman said.
Likewise, the number of chronically homeless people (defined as those without housing for at least a year or who have experienced homelessness at least four times in three years) decreased by 7 percent over the past year, a total 25 percent drop since 2007, with moves to get them into housing that offers supportive services such as mental health, drug rehabilitation, and job training.
“It shows that when you put resources in place, you can be on your way to eliminating homelessness,” Tars said. “But what’s being neglected is the overall housing crisis and housing homeless families in general.”
Advocates say more needs to be done to address high housing costs, the root cause of homelessness.
Several years of high foreclosure rates have meant millions of former home owners are now tenants, squeezing demand and boosting rents. Developers prefer to build high-end homes with bigger profit margins, while the federal government has cut its subsidized housing program for low-income people, known as Section 8.
“Housing costs are going up a lot more than incomes,” Roman said. “People are staying in shelters so they can save the first and last months’ rent.”
Homeless trends in the nation’s two largest cities where housing costs are exorbitant—New York and Los Angeles—underscore the need for affordable housing. Both cities saw big increases in their homeless populations over the past year, defying the national trend.
New York saw a 13 percent jump in its homeless population—to 64,000—in the past year, while Los Angeles saw its homeless population soar in January 2013 to 53,000, a 27 percent jump.
In Los Angeles, the large homeless population recently spurred the City Council to consider a ban on outdoor feeding of the homeless by charities because of litter and food safety concerns and to encourage them to go to shelters.
“That’s insane,” said Los Angeles homeless activist Jeff Page, known as “General Jeff” in downtown’s Skid Row, where 2,000 people bed down nightly in shelters and on sidewalks. “The shelters can’t handle the influx of people they have now.”
Activists called on the government to do more to help those stuck on the bottom rung of the country’s social ladder. One idea advocated by the National Law Center is to repurpose foreclosed, vacant homes to house homeless people.
“We think it’s absurd that there are so many homeless people and so many people-less homes,” Tars said. “Despite the economic recession, we are still the wealthiest country in the world. It’s simply unacceptable for homelessness to exist.”
Homelessness in the United States is an area of concern for social service providers, government officials, policy professionals, and society at large.[1] The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in January 2012 annual point-in-time count found that 633,782 people across America were homeless. With 2007 as a benchmark, the data from the report showed a 6.8 percent decline in homelessness among individuals, a 3.7 percent decline of homeless families, a 13.1 percent decline of the unsheltered homeless population, and a 19.3 percent decline in persons experiencing chronic homelessness. During the overall count, 62,619 veterans were found homeless nationwide.[2] One out of 50 children or 1.5 million children in America will be homeless each year.[3] There were an estimated 57,849 homeless veterans estimated in the United States during January 2013; or 12 percent of all homeless adults. Just under 8 percent of homeless U.S. veterans are female. Texas, California and Florida have the highest numbers of unaccompanied homeless youth under the age of 18; comprising 58% of the total homeless under 18 youth population [4] Because of turnover in the homeless population, the total number of people who experience homelessness for at least a few nights during the course of a year is thought to be considerably higher than point-in-time counts. A 2000 study estimated the number of such people to be between 2.3 million and 3.5 million.[5][
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