No good solutions

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, 30% of people who become homeless exit homelessness after two weeks. (Manhattan-Institute, 2022). Almost 30% of homelessness is chronic (lasting more than 12 months). (Security.org, January 2023)

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The question raised in the Prose challenge by one of my favorite writers, Huckleberry_Hoo, was can some US citizens lawfully live in the streets, “destroying property value and endangering it’s cities? Light research tells me that 90% of our homeless choose to be, meaning 90% have another option yet stay on the streets because it is more comfortable for them there. My question; is the comfort of the indigent more important than the comfort of the taxpayer? Does our gov’t have an obligation to make it less comfortable for them?”

Some research (sources below) leads me to take issue with the 90% statistic. And although I know that there are those who prefer to live outdoors, it is highly improbable that it is because it is more comfortable for them on city streets (unless by more comfortable one means because the street is safer than dangerous shelters, or abusive homes).

No one’s comfort is any more important than another’s. And clearing out all the homeless camps (as in Missouri), in an effort to “restrict visible homelessness” (and therefore increase property values, I guess), makes sense as long as there is an equal effort to get those removed the help they need: shelter, job training, behavioral or addiction programs. Making homelessness a jailable offense when there are no local homeless shelters, no psychiatric hospitals and no regular public transportation (rural homelessness) will not have the desired effect. Not connecting those in need with available services is counterproductive.

Some general statistics (as per security.org, January 2023):

582,462 individuals are experiencing homelessness in America, an increase of about 2,000 people since the last complete census conducted in 2020.

About 30 percent of people without homes are experiencing chronic patterns of homelessness. This means they’ve been without homes for more than 12 months or have experienced extended periods of extended homelessness over the past three years.

Most states saw their homeless populations rise since 2019, including four where the tally more than doubled (Delaware, Vermont, Louisiana, Maine).

Sixty percent of individuals experiencing homelessness are male, though unsheltered homelessness rose by five percent among women and girls. More than a quarter [25%] of those experiencing homelessness were with their families and children.

Much progress has been made in reducing homelessness among military veterans. Homelessness in this population declined by 11 percent over the past two years and has been halved since 2010.

I imagine that that 25% of families experiencing homelessness are not happier on the streets. Nor the 30% that manage to get out of the street as quickly as they are able.

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One of the most disturbing moments I had in college was discovering that many of the residents of a local homeless shelter had jobs (sometimes more than one) but did not earn enough to afford housing. Rents were too high. As I read the classified ads for apartment rentals as I neared graduation, I rethought career choices in terms of what would allow me to not live at home forever or end up homeless despite working full time.

That was more than 30 years ago.

Even earlier than that, I remember visiting my dad in what I now know was a hotel that had been converted to temporary housing for the working poor. My dad worked for the NYC Department of Transportation for his entire adult life, first as a train conductor, then for property protection. The only time he missed work was when he was in the hospital (heart attack; tumor removal). He retired on disability two months before he died. After the stint with the hotel, he rented in an affordable housing complex in a neighborhood that over the last two decades has become increasingly gentrified and, thus, too expensive for the current residents.

Today, as then, low wages and a soaring cost of living, mean that one job loss or medical issue could be the difference of having a place to live or not. The average wage required to rent a two-bedroom apartment exceeds the average minimum wage by anywhere from $5 to $14. (National Library of Medicine, 2018)

“An analysis by Chris Glynn and Emily Fox, two statisticians, predicts that a 10% increase in rents in a high-cost city like New York would result in an 8% increase in the number of homeless residents.” (The Economist, 2019) Thus, wherever homelessness seems to be out of control, high housing costs are also probably present.

"The origins of the current homelessness crisis go back decades — to policies that stopped the U.S. from building enough housing... Seven million extremely low-income renters cannot get affordable homes, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition. And inflation is compounding the problem: Rent has increased at its fastest rate since 1986, putting houses and apartments out of reach for more Americans. Many cities and states in the Midwest and South, for example, have higher rates of mental illness, poverty or addiction than other parts of the U.S., but they have similar or lower rates of homelessness. What explains regional variation is housing market conditions,” said Gregg Colburn, a housing expert at the University of Washington. Homelessness, then, is a supply-and-demand problem. Without enough housing, not everyone has a place to live. And the homes that do exist cost more as people compete for limited supply. So, more people are priced out, and more end up homeless." (NYT, 2022)

Case in point: California has 23 available affordable homes for every 100 extremely low-income renters. One in four homeless in the US lives in California.

Interestingly, the pandemic caused a migration to remote locations in New England states as people were no longer tied to offices in big cities. This has led to an increase in demand without a corresponding increase in supply…so, higher rents…more homelessness. (WSJ, Rise in Homelessness, 2023)

"The concentration of homelessness in specific places isn’t caused by the prevalence of poverty, unemployment, or other socioeconomic conditions. Cities with very high rates of poverty and unemployment, such as Cleveland or Baltimore, have some of the lowest per capita rates of homelessness in the country. This trend holds for drug use as well. For example, while West Virginia has an extremely high drug overdose mortality rate compared to other states, it also maintained one of the lowest homelessness rates in the country." (Bipartisanpolicy.org, 2023)

In the 1980s, one of the primary forces that affected homelessness was gentrification of the inner cities and deep budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and social services in response to the recession.

"In some cities, property values increased dramatically in the areas near downtown, and Skid Row areas disappeared as the SROs [Single Room Occupancy] and rooming houses that were home to thousands of transients were razed or converted into apartments and condominiums. Since the 1980s, rents in metro areas across the country have been increasing while wages have stagnated ."(Katz, 2006) (National Library of Medicine, 2018)

So, the poor and transient once had housing, but it was eliminated without also providing new housing options while also eliminating other programs of assistance. Sounds familiar…

In addition to housing issues, policies from the 1960s regarding the mentally had a detrimental and long-lasting impact on the homelessness situation in the US.

"Deinstitutionalization of the mentally ill has roots in the civil rights and civil liberties movements of the 1960s, which envisioned more fulfilling lives for those who had been languishing in understaffed psychiatric hospitals through new medications and robust community-based services. The number of patients living in state hospitals dropped from 535,000 in 1960 to 137,000 in 1980. California saw a dramatic reduction in state hospital beds from 37,000 in 1955 to 2,500 in 1983 (Flynn, 1985). Funding for the needed housing and community-based services proved inadequate, and, as cheap housing disappeared, vast numbers of previously institutionalized individuals with severe and persistent mental illness or those who might have gone to institutions in earlier eras drifted onto the streets and into temporary shelters. "(National Library of Medicine, 2018)

The intentions were good, the results, not so much.

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I live in an upper middle class, small town in the northeast. We have one homeless woman. She walks the streets year-round. For a little while, some ten years ago, she lived in the home of a friend of mine. One day she just left. She couldn’t breathe. After that, at night she found shelter in the basement of the church my friend attended, but the church shut down and now I have no idea where she sleeps. Occasionally, one of the hotels on the highway let’s her shower. There are no shelters in my town although, after much searching, I did find one overnight emergency shelter for abuse victims and one homeless shelter in the county where my town is located. Both were run by private, non-profit organizations. The police are very active in my town. I don’t know if they’ve ever tried to get her to go elsewhere. I see her almost daily, wandering with her bag and a crutch, suffering from arthritis, knee issues due to a recent fall, a poorly healed broken arm (same fall), severely bloated legs and arms (probably caused by long term lack of protein or a variety of diseases or damage to organs).

I wouldn’t say she wants to be outside; she just can’t be inside. I don’t know her history. I don’t know if she ever worked. I deduce that she has psychological issues. She doesn’t appear to have a drinking or drug problem. She doesn’t beg. The local deli gives her peanut butter and jelly sandwiches daily. Undoubtedly, she is one of the people Huck alluded to who is more comfortable on the street. I am sure she is not the only one, but she is definitely not part of the majority. She is, however, one of the invisible people we prefer not to see and who have been failed, possibly, by their families, their communities and the society in which we live.

Sources:

National Library of Medicine, July 2018, The History of Homelessness in the United States

The Economist, October, 2019, Homelessness is Declining in America

HUD 2022 Annual Homeless Assessment Report

NYT, July 2022, Homeless in America

Thehill.com, October 2022, The Typical homeless person in America might surprise you

Manhattan-institute.org, September 2022, Homeless, but Able and Willing to Work: How Federal Policy Neglects Employment-Based Solutions and What to Do About It

Security.org , January 2023, Homelessness in America 2023: Statistics, Analysis and Trends

Central Union Mission, 2023, About Homelessness

NationalHomeless.org, 2023, Homelessness in America

Forbes, January 2023, “Rough Sleepers” – The Growing Problem of Homelessness In America

Wall Street Journal, January 2023, Missouri Camping Ban Squeezes Rural Homeless

Wall Street Journal, January 2023, California’s Recipe for More Homeless

Bipartisan policy.org, February 2023, Housing Supply and the Drivers of Homelessness

Wall Street Journal, February 2023, Rise in Homelessness Hits New England States