My 11 year old son and I worked in a soup kitchen the day after Christmas. I had lived in the inner city before, so I had seen many homeless during my time there, but my son had never seen any in his life except on TV. He was amazed by the variety of people he saw and commented on how some of them looked “just like you and me but with yucky clothes on and dirty hair.” I explained to him that some of the people who came in were mentally ill, some had drug or alcohol problems, some had lost their families, some had been struggling with paying the bills, and one day they lost their homes.
Happy New Year for the Homeless?
By Laura Bramble
February/March 2010 CONDUCIVE
My son then asked me a question that floored me. He said, “Mom, are these the people other people try to forget? Do they hide in the corners because people don’t want to see them?” After a moment’s thought, I had to sadly and honestly answer yes.
In June of 2009, the show NOW on PBS did an episode on homelessness and the information presented was startling. They looked at several reports, including ones by the United States Conference of Mayors and the National Coalition for the Homeless. It was found that anywhere from 2.3 to 3.5 million people are homeless for at least some period of time each year. Those numbers showed an increase of an average of 12 percent in 2008, and most are predicting the same or higher rate of increase for 2009 due to the recession.
These numbers are only based on those that seek emergency shelter and aid or are able to be identified. There are many more who live in places that make it very difficult for them to be counted, like automobiles, boxcars, abandoned buildings, and other inaccessible areas. While the majority of homeless live in the inner cities, nearly one third live in suburban or rural areas. A surprising number of them are families or the working poor.
Washington has not addressed homelessness with a legislative response since 1987, when the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act was signed into law. The act has helped several hundred thousand over the last 20 years with job training, primarily health care and housing, but as the number of homeless shows, this is only a drop in the bucket.
I mention these statistics because many of us do not know what homelessness truly looks like. Most people think of drunk, smelly, bedraggled men sitting in a dark corner nursing a bottle of booze or shuffling down the street asking for change. Others think of the stereotypical “bag lady” who hauls all of her possessions with her in a cart. While there are homeless out there who fit those stereotypes, a huge number do not.
These are the people who we turn into stereotypes to make them something other than “us” so we don’t have to think about their needs anymore. These are the people who we make into an inner city phenomenon so that we can live in the suburbs or the country and pretend that all is well where we are. These are the people who could be living in the storage shed for a foreclosed house down the street, in a tent at a local campground, in a car behind a shopping center or in a cheap motel. These are real people with real stories; some familiar and some that are not a whole lot different than yours or mine.
There is a cost to homelessness. It eats away at the moral and ethical character of our society. It promotes hoarding and personal greed born of fear of becoming just like the homeless. And it is expensive. According to a study done by the United Way of Los Angeles, it was found that giving services to the homeless on the street for two years cost 43 percent more than it would to give them permanent shelter.
The costs of homelessness and our present response to it far outweigh the money and resources needed to combat the problem. We can’t afford not to combat the problem, morally or fiscally. Do we have to wait until the number of homeless becomes so large that there is no way to ignore it anymore, or that it is nearly impossible to combat?
I hope that one day a child never has to look at another human being and ask if he or she is one of the forgotten, one of the homeless. We have the means in our possession to shelter, feed, and clothe them and get the proper medical attention for the ones who need it. We can step in earlier and prevent these situations by providing job training, affordable housing, food, and medical support to those at risk of becoming homeless. If we have the means to place people in prison and spend $36,000 a year to house, feed, clothe, and secure each of them, we have the means to end homelessness. It is our moral duty as fellow human beings and it is our civic duty as guardians of the rights of all.
Laura Bramble is a freelance writer living in Atlanta. She is inspired by the courage shown by everyday people in making the world a better place and believes that courage is in every one of us. Just as we have inalienable rights, we also have an inalienable responsibility to look out for our fellow man and to use our rights responsibly. To contact Laura, or for more information on working with her, click here. Go here to read her Conducive Chronicle blog.
Copyright ©2009 Conducive. All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission from CONDUCIVEMAG.COM
