[News] 10 Facts About Being Homeless in the USA

[Anti-Imperialist News]

October 14, 2014
http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/10/14/10-facts-about-being-homeless-in-the-usa/


*As the Crisis Deepens, the Government is Doing Less to Help*


  10 Facts About Being Homeless in the USA

by BILL QUIGLEY

Three True Stories

Renee Delisle was one of over 3500 homeless people in Santa Cruz when 
she found out she was pregnant. The Santa Cruz Sentinel 
<http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_24374949/santa-cruz-county-homelessness-skyrockets-28-percent> 
reported she was turned away from a shelter because they did not have 
space for her.  While other homeless people slept in cars or under 
culverts, Renee ended up living in an abandoned elevator shaft until her 
water broke.

Jerome Murdough, 56, a homeless former Marine, was arrested for trespass 
in New York because he was found sleeping in a public housing stairwell 
on a cold night. The New York Times 
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/13/nyregion/rikers-death-is-ruled-an-accident.html?_r=0> 
reported that one week later, Jerome died of hypothermia in a jail cell 
heated to over 100 degrees.

Paula Corb and her two daughters lost their home and have lived in their 
minivan for four years.  They did laundry in a church annex, went to the 
bathroom at gas stations, and did their studies under street lamps, 
according to America Tonight 
<http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/america-tonight/articles/2014/10/10/mobile-homes-manyhiddenhomelessamericanslivinginvehicles.htm>.

/Fact One.  Over half a million people are homeless/

On any given night, there are over 600,000 homeless people in the US 
according to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) 
<https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf>. 
Most people are either spending the night in homeless shelters or in 
some sort of short term transitional housing.  Slightly more than a 
third are living in cars, under bridges or in some other way living 
unsheltered.

/Fact Two.  One quarter of homeless people are children/

HUD reports that on any given night over 138,000 of the homeless in the 
US are children 
<https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf> 
under the age of 18. Thousands of these homeless children are 
unaccompanied according to HUD.  Another federal program, No Child Left 
Behind, defines homeless children more broadly 
<http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/briefs/det_elig.pdf> and 
includes not just those living in shelters or transitional housing but 
also those who are sharing the housing of other persons due to economic 
hardship, living in cars, parks, bus or train stations, or awaiting 
foster care placement.  Under this definition, the National Center for 
Homeless Education reported in September 2014 that local school 
districts reported there are over one million homeless children in 
public schools 
<http://center.serve.org/nche/downloads/data-comp-1011-1213.pdf>.

/Fact Three.  Tens of thousands of veterans are homeless/

Over 57,000 veterans are homeless 
<https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf> 
each night.  Sixty percent of them were in shelters, the rest 
unsheltered.  Nearly 5000 are female.

/Fact Four.  Domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness in women/

More than 90% of homeless women are victims of severe physical or sexual 
abuse <http://nlchp.org/documents/UPR_Housing_Report_2014> and escaping 
that abuse is a leading cause of their homelessness.

/Fact Five. Many people are homeless because they cannot afford rent/

The lack of affordable housing is a primary cause of homelessness 
<http://nlchp.org/documents/UPR_Housing_Report_2014> according to the 
National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.  HUD has seen its 
budget slashed by over 50% in recent decades resulting in the loss of 
10,000 units of subsidized low income housing each and every year.

/Fact Six.  There are fewer places for poor people to rent than before/

One eighth of the nation's supply of low income housing has been 
permanently lost <http://nlchp.org/documents/No_Safe_Place> since 2001.  
The US needs at least 7 million more affordable apartments 
<http://nlchp.org/documents/UPR_Housing_Report_2014> for low income 
families and as a result millions of families spend more than half their 
monthly income on rent.

/Fact Seven.  In the last few years millions have lost their homes/

Over five million homes have been foreclosed 
<http://www.corelogic.com/about-us/news/corelogic-reports-47,000-completed-foreclosures-in-may.aspx> 
on since 2008, one out of every ten homes with a mortgage.  This has 
caused even more people to search for affordable rental property.

/Fact Eight.  The Government does not help as much as you think/

There is enough public rental assistance to help about one out of every 
four extremely low income 
<http://nlchp.org/documents/UPR_Housing_Report_2014> households.  Those 
who do not receive help are on multi-year waiting lists.  For example, 
Charlotte just opened up their applications for public housing 
assistance for the first time in 14 years and over 10,000 people 
applied. 
<http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2014/09/26/5202181/section-8-wait-list-will-likely.html#.VDvyBPldWSo>

/Fact Nine.  One in five homeless people suffer from untreated severe 
mental illness/

While about 6% of the general population suffers from severe mental 
illness, 20 to 25% of the homeless suffer from severe mental illness 
<http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/Mental_Illness.pdf> 
according to government studies.  Half of this population self-medicate 
and are at further risk of addiction and poor physical health.  A 
University of Pennsylvania study tracking nearly 5000 homeless people 
for two years 
<http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews/news/housing-homeless-mentally-ill-pays-itself-according-university-pennsylvania> 
discovered that investing in comprehensive health support and treatment 
of physical and mental illnesses is less costly than incarceration, 
shelter and hospital services for the untreated homeless.

/Fact Ten.  Cities are increasingly making homelessness a crime/

A 2014 survey of 187 cities by the National Law Center on Homelessness & 
Poverty <http://nlchp.org/documents/No_Safe_Place> found: 24% make it a 
city-wide crime to beg in public; 33% make it illegal to stand around or 
loiter anyplace in the city; 18% make it a crime to sleep anywhere in 
public; 43% make it illegal to sleep in your car; and 53% make it 
illegal to sit or lay down in particular public places.   And the number 
of cities criminalizing homelessness is steadily increasing.

For more information look to the National Law Center on Homelessness & 
Poverty <http://www.nlchp.org/>, the National Center for Homeless 
Education <http://center.serve.org/nche/> and the National Coalition on 
the Homeless <http://www.nationalhomeless.org/>.

/*Bill Quigley* teaches law at Loyola University New Orleans.  You can 
reach Bill at quigley77 at gmail.com <mailto:quigley77 at gmail.com>/

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20141014/a72873f5/attachment.htm>