SOCIAL PROBLEMS: HOMELESSNESS IN THE UNITED STATES IS AN EPIDEMIC

(BillyBuc, John Wihbey, Burt M. Aron, E.L. Bassuk)

(United States Department of Housing & Human Development)

(Martin Donohoe M.D. FACP, Coalition for the Homeless, Lee Stringer)

(Bruce Vladeck, David Wagner, Megan Wollhouse, Jenna Worthham, John Quigley)

(Peter Moskowitz, Al Jazeera, Heidi Sommer, Jessica Ilana Katz, Charles Hoch, Frazer Chronicle)

 

A problem that won’t go away and a problem that Americans absolutely won’t deal with, and in some cases won’t even acknowledge. Knock on wood, I’ve never been homeless, and hopefully never will, so I don’t have any practical experience. I don’t think that I even know anybody who’s been homeless, although I’m sure that a few of the people that I’ve met in my life have experienced the horror of not know where he would sleep at night.

 

I’ve been lucky, it’s the only way that I can explain why I’m still a virgin with regards to being homeless, and I want to stay a virgin…..thank you very much. I say that “I’ve been lucky,” because I never quite got the jest of a dollar bill and why it was so damned important. I’ve had very good people bail me out of sticky situations, and have been fortunate to have such good friends, and family members.

 

The weather throughout the Midwest and the East Coast has been brutal over the past six or seven days, causing shelters to struggle to keep beds open during this extreme cold. Frostbite and even death can be the result of a homeless person not finding suitable shelter before the sun goes down.

 

The cold temperatures that oozed its way down from Canada through most of the upper Midwest, bringing some of the coldest weather for years has been kicking our collective butts for several days in a row. For me it has been an inconvenience, I hate the cold weather, but for people who sleep in their cars, under a bridge, or on a park bench, the cold has brought a threat of untreatable illness, or death to the estimated 800,000 and more.

 

Overnight, January 6, 2014, every state in the continental U.S. saw temperatures dip to the freezing mark, a first since those kinds of records have been kept. Cities that are used to cold temperatures, and can offer warm food and a bed have been overwhelmed, but cities like Atlanta, Memphis and New Orleans have been socked…..and they aren’t set up to handle any kind of extended cold snap.

 

Smaller communities across the country do not have the where-with-all to handle even their limited homeless problem. Doorways or lightly heated entryways serve some of these people, but there usually isn’t any warm food, or organized places for the homeless to stay for a night or two in a warm environment to catch 40 winks.

 

The real culprit is the wind chill value that rides in with the wind, where the usual blanket would be enough to withstand a southern winter cold spell can be almost useless when temperatures hover around 32 degrees, but a 15 to 20 mile an hour wind makes it feel like 15 degrees…..the results can be dire.

 

DO YOU SEE THEM, CAN YOU SEEM THEM, WILL YOU SEE THEM

An estimated 600,000 homeless people in the United States…..a national embarrassment, an atrocity, when one considers that the United States is the most powerful country possibly in the history of the world. How can this be, what are we missing, and exactly where are our collective priorities? Homeless people span the entire spectrum of the population; white, black, Indian and Hispanic; men, women, and children. No race or creed is exempt; homelessness is an equal opportunity social issue, and it’s alive and well in every major city in the United States, and in many smaller communities as well.

 

In any given year, as many as 3,500,000 people are homeless in the United States, approximately 1% of the entire population. During any given week as many as 840,000 people are homeless. The numbers will never be accurate due to the difficulty of finding all the homeless, a shifting population that is never in one place long enough to count. You see, the homeless don’t have mailing addresses, they don’t have land phone lines, nor do they have cell phones, they check out…..but very seldom check in.

 

The fastest growing segment of the homeless are families with children, which makes up 23% of the homeless population. 51% are single males, 24.7% are single females, and 5% are minors unaccompanied by adults. 39% of the total homeless population are children under the age of 18. 49% are African American, 35% Caucasian, 13% Hispanic, 2% Native American, and 1% Asian.

 

22% of the homeless have serious mental illnesses, 30% have substance abuse issues, 46% have chronic health problems, and 58% have trouble finding enough food to eat. 38% have less than a high school education, 34% have a high school diploma, 28% have more than a high school diploma, and 43% are veterans of the Armed Forces.

 

Homeless people in 2014 aren’t seen because they are an accepted socio problem in our society, and more or less have become invisible to the average American citizen. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the leading cause of homelessness are as follows: The change in mental health systems since the 1960’s, a shift towards community-based treatment of mentally ill rather than long term institutional commitment. Redevelopment and gentrification of neighborhoods in cities, demolished low-income neighborhoods. The economic crises in the late 1970’s and 80’s, and the 2008 bubble. Failure of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide effective mental health care for veterans, and foreclosure or eviction of homes or apartments. Do you see them, can you see them, will you see them?

 

HOMELESS BY STATE, 2013, AND THE ROOT CAUSES

California leads the nation with an estimated 136,826 (more than the population of Green Bay, Wisconsin), New York State, 77,430 (more than the population of Pontiac, Michigan), 47,862 in Florida, (at least it’s warmer there…..usually).

 

States with the least homeless, Delaware, 946, Wyoming, 953, and South Dakota with 1,094, one sparsely populated, Wyoming, one small in size, Delaware, and a state that leads the country in numbers of employed, South Dakota.

 

The single biggest reason for homelessness in the United States today, at the beginning of 2014 is affordable housing. There is also a failure of urban housing authorities nationwide to provide safe, secure, and affordable housing to the poor. There is also a redevelopment and gentrification activities instituted by cities across the country through which low-income neighborhoods are declared blighted and demolished to make way for projects that generate higher property taxes and other revenue, creating a shortage of housing affordable to low-income working families, the elderly, poor and disabled.

 

The problem here is simple…..the above are the root problems that cause homelessness in the richest and most powerful country in the history of mankind. Call a spade and spade, for the most part, people who aren’t homeless understand but for the grace of God, there go I. There also is an element greed connected with the problem of affordable housing that helps to generate the homeless.

 

We examine, study statistics and demographics, and make assessments in annual reports on the homeless and the problems that they cause. Yet there is no study, or assessment on how to eradicate the problem from the fabric of our society. That is the $64,000 dollar question, what to do, and for homelessness to continue to be such a social problem for us really, really needs to be solved…..right away.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!