State of Homelessness

The reading today was much more reassuring than those of previous activities in this unit. It talked more of the efforts to alleviate homelessness rather than the horrors of the experience. The most interesting fact today was that during the reported period, homelessness actually decreased by 1% nationally. This was thanks mostly to the new government interest and investment in protecting people from suffering from homelessness through The Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program. Another shocking statistic was that 1 in 6 Americans do not have health insurance. There is an apparent link to homelessness here. If you are uninsured and you or a family member becomes seriously ill or injured, you could lose everything. This includes your house, which would render you homeless. Hopefully the government will step up the aid and prevention, but that doesn't appear to be the direction it will be going. According to the reading, "debt and deficit reduction at the federal level have begun to shrink assistance available to the most vulnerable." At the point where progress has been made, funds are running low. Many communities and homeless people will lose access to the benefits and fall deeper into destitution. This is going to a growing problem as funds run low and are redirected.

The problem of homelessness is often avoided by the public and the government. People want to believe that if they ignore the problem it will go away. However, this is not the case. The problem will only worsen and the best option, prevention, will no longer be available. Furthermore, there are so many causes of homelessness that are out of one's control. It could just as easily be you or me in their shoes next year if we fall into unfortunate circumstances. The problem of homelessness needs to be a public and political priority. If we don't take care of each other, one day the tables could be turned.


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