On Homelessness
The photo above was featured in a public group on a social media platform and prompted some great discussion, and the writing of this blog post.
Homelessness is not just an issue of needing a place to stay. There are many factors involved in how and why a person becomes homeless, and then remains without a permanent residence. The obstacles often include combinations of financial crisis, traumatic events, mental health concerns, struggles with addiction and sobriety, and many other economic, social, and emotional challenges. These are all major considerations in developing multifaceted solutions to helping people secure long-term homes and supports. This is a short post that expresses some of the possibilities for developing socioeconomic (and interdisciplinary) responses that could lead to greater outcomes and impacts for people experiencing transient, shelter, and street life.
The National Law Center’s (NLC) report on Homelessness and Poverty (2015) states that the “top causes of homelessness among families were: (1) lack of affordable housing, (2) unemployment, (3) poverty, and (4) low wages, in that order.” The report estimates that “at least 2.5 to 3.5 million Americans sleep in shelters, transitional housing, and public places not meant for human habitation… [and] an additional 7.4 million have lost their own homes and are doubled-up with others due to economic necessity”. https://nlchp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Homeless_Stats_Fact_Sheet.pdf
One of the problems with getting an accurate count of people and families experiencing homelessness is that there are different definitions being used by various government agencies (i.e., Department of Housing and Urban Development - HUD, and Department of Education - DOE, etc.). These variants in defining what homelessness is, also effects the methods for gathering and analyzing accurate information and documentation on who is experiencing displacement and why.
According to the statistics presented by the NLC, and other sources gathered, even if all the homeless people were housed there would still be large numbers of empty properties. Homeless people could be living in these vacant homes in exchange for helping to maintain the upkeep of the buildings and grounds, set up with training and mentoring for small business opportunities to make and sell products that will pay the rent/mortgage (ie: soap making, local farming, catering, jewelry making, pottery, books, clothing, pet care, building solar or other energy efficiency products, cooperative ventures, etc.).
The cost of providing homeless services (medical, food, shelter, clothing, etc.) exceeds the cost of investing in long term preventions and practical solutions that create real self sufficiency and sustainability as normalized forms of supporting human growth and social systems. These are the same and overlapping issues and solutions related to urban development, mental health, and education (and particularly as they relate to people who are veterans, were formerly incarcerated, and survivors of various forms of trauma).
Although art is a strong agent for social awareness and change, it can also be ineffective (similar to the fields of education, medicine, social services, etc.), especially when the purpose and meaning is lost in the inauthenticity of being just the ‘same old song and dance’. The poetic words of Emma Lazarus’s 1883 sonnet, carved into a golden brown bronze plaque under the body of the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…” continues to represent an ironic, not iconic, monument, erected in the face of increasing poverty and disparities. At this time, particularly as we all struggle to breathe through the suffocating requirements of wearing face masks while enduring the obstacles of the COVID-19 pandemic, we can no longer continue to march in protest, and sing the same old ‘songs of freedom’, yet hope that the serious effects of predatory piracy will somehow be thwarted with cold, muffled and silenced voices, huddled under the quilted blanket of fear and complacency. No, now, is the time, it is always the time, to ‘lift every voice’ (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian-institution/why-black-national-anthem-lifting-every-voice-sing-180975519/) and not just sing, but act.
Think About It… Write About It…Talk About It…
Please share your comments, questions, and suggestions below.
