One survey estimates that 838,000
people are homeless in the United States on any given night. But the
population is constantly changing. Though some people are chronically
homeless, up to 2 million people experience temporary homelessness during
the course of the year.
Many of the homeless are children.
Statistics tell us that onefourth of the urban homeless population
consists of children under the age of 18.
Over a third are
families with
children. Their numbers are likely to be even higher in rural areas.
They are of many races. The homeless
population is estimated to be 58 percent African American, 29 percent
Caucasian, 10 percent Hispanic, 2 percent Native American and 1 percent
Asian.
Many have been abused. Half of
homeless women and children are fleeing abusive relationships.
Many are veterans. Forty percent of
homeless men have served in the armed forces, compared to 34 percent of
the general adult male population.
Some are ill. About onefifth of
homeless people suffer with some sort of severe and persistent mental
illness. But only a small percentage of these people should be
institutionalized. Most could get along fine if they only had appropriate
housing options.
Some are addicts. About one-fifth of
the homeless struggle with substance abuse disorders.
Why are they
homeless?
Homelessness does not necessarily
mean joblessness. Often it is the result of underemployment. The number of
people earning wages at the poverty level or lower has more than doubled
in the past three decades. At the same time, the United States has seen a
shortage of affordable housing and an increase in poverty throughout the
nation.
Thirty years ago, a person who
worked fulltime, yearround and who made the minimum wage could
earn enough to keep a family of three above the poverty line. Since that
time, the minimum wage has increased at only half the rate of inflation.
That means that a full-time worker paid minimum wage today earns only 85
percent of what he needs to keep his family of three out of
poverty.
Minimum wage is not enough to pay
fair market rent (defined as 30 percent of one's income) on a one or
twobedroom apartment in the United States. The average
minimumwage worker would have to work 83 hours each week to afford
that twobedroom apartment.
Many households must pay over half
their incomes as rent and still may live in severely substandard housing.
Yet forty percent of those families have at least one person
working.
When a family is forced to choose
between housing and such necessities as medical care, food, education and
child care, they often must forgo paying the rent. That difficult choice
may leave them homeless.
A desperate
situation
On average, people remain homeless
for five months at a time. Each night they must find a place to sleep.
More often than not, family members
must be sheltered separately. Many shelters refuse to admit older boys and
men, forcing families to split up.
In 1997, 27 percent of all requests
for emergency shelter (and 32 percent of the requests by homeless
families) in the United States went unmet due to lack of resources. There
are many more homeless people than there are beds, and in most rural areas
there are no shelters at all.
The strong economy has had little or
no effect on either hunger or homelessness. Only onethird of low
income households are currently served by assisted housing programs.
Increasing housing costs, the lack of available lowskill jobs and
welfare reform--particularly food stamp cuts--just make the situation
worse.
Children who are homeless have more
health problems than poor children who have homes. Their transient status
causes behavioral problems and a higher incidence of depression. They
develop more slowly than children from stable home settings, and do not
perform as well in school. Their school attendance is necessarily erratic
and they are forced to switch schools frequently as the family continues
its search for shelter.
Homeless adults experience higher
than average levels of depression. They also may have chronic health
problems that go untreated. They are usually without insurance and have
difficulty obtaining medical care.
What can you do? How can you help? How can you make a difference in the life of a child?
"It isn't that I never worked," Katherine Engels, a grandmother and president of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, said at a congressional hearing on the human-rights implications of increasing hunger, poverty and economic insecurity in America. "I've worked since I was 14 years old."
"With the jobs that are out there," she continued, "you're not making enough to live. … Mothers go hungry at night so their children can eat. You have to find a way to feed your kids, no matter what it takes. And if it takes going in people's trash cans, hey, I have no pride when it comes to my kids."
A triumphant view dominates media coverage of the U.S. economy: the lowest yearly unemployment rate in a quarter-century, rising profits, a balanced budget and declining numbers of Americans classified as poor. But while all this is cause for national celebration, Engels knows the poverty problem is bigger then her personal struggle.
A problem that cannot be ignored
Poverty in America is nothing new. But never before have poor families like the Engelses had to wage their daily struggles amid such pervasive chatter about unprecedented prosperity. The present economic optimism masks the deepening erosion of the American dream for millions in this country.
Despite glowing media reports on our booming economy, an estimated 46 million Americans, or nearly 17%, live below the poverty line. Today, one in five children younger than 5 lives in poverty, the highest rate among industrialized countries.
New data released by the Agriculture Department, in its report on Household Food Security in the United States, 1995-1998, suggests that despite the strength of the national economy, hunger remains a serious problem. In 1998, some 36 million people did not have adequate access to food. About 20% of all children younger than 18 (or 14 million children) lived in food-insecure homes.
The trend disturbs Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, among others. "During this, the most prosperous economy in decades," Glickman said, "it should shock most Americans to learn that hunger persists, and it is in every state. The problem of hunger amid America's plenty cannot be ignored."
Three years after the passage of the Orwellian-sounding "Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act," better known as welfare reform, many like Engels wish policymakers who have never known hunger could get a closer look at the people waiting in food lines. Then maybe they would understand -- and change things.
The welfare law hits hardest those who cannot afford enough food. More than half the $54 billion in welfare cuts over six years will come from the food stamps that 25 million poor Americans need. More than 50% of the beneficiaries are children. Every month, food stamps for some 100,000 people are slashed.
The failure of conventional approaches
Citizen-initiated food banks are intended to compensate for some of the gaps in the safety net. Yet with welfare reform, these food banks are being relied on as the safety net. The food-stamp cuts average $4 billion per year, while the total value of all food in the nation's food banks is just $1 billion a year.
To compensate fully for the government cuts in food programs, each of the 350,000 U.S. churches would have to contribute an average $150,000 per year. The nonprofit sector would have to distribute 24.5 billion pounds of food over six years -- four times more than the current distribution and enough to fill 5 million Army National Guard trucks.
Today, our society looks like a pyramid, with the poor at the base. The after-tax income gap between the rich and poor is projected to reach its widest point in 1999. The top 2.7 million people have as much income as the bottom 100 million. The wealthiest 1% of households own nearly 40% of the nation's wealth; the poorest 80% of households own just 16%.
While the wealthy grow steadily richer, riding stock-market surges, millions of working Americans grope for their infinitesimal share of the boom. Many are victims of layoffs, lack the skills now in demand or have been forced off welfare. Wages often are too meager to allow self-sufficiency; work is grueling or mind-numbing and available on night shifts, and without health insurance or other benefits.
It does not have to be that way. The wealth and resources clearly exist for everyone to have shelter, food, access to a decent education, health care and a job that pays a living wage. The sad truth is that blind pursuance of market has created an economy that puts corporate profits before people's lives, that places economic efficiency over opportunity and compassion for all.
Conventional approaches have not lessened economic insecurity, poverty and hunger in America. Anti-poverty policies have stigmatized the poor and offered them a combination of weak assistance and thinly veiled punishment. Rather than providing a pathway to the American mainstream, such policies have reinforced exclusion.
A cause worthy of unity
A fresh approach can lift us out of despair, renew our hope and give us energy to unite our movements in a common struggle. We need to change the way we think about poverty and hunger. We must build on what we share in common: our essential humanity and dignity.
We can unite behind a framework of human rights. Article 25 of the universal declaration of Human Rights states clearly that everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of self and family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care and necessary social services.
Those of us concerned about the growing economic insecurity, the dismantling of our social safety net, and the denial of health-care benefits and Social Security still are awaiting U.S. ratification of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The United States remains the only G-7 country not to have ratified this treaty. Until we legally endow all our people with the inalienable right to freedom from want, the United States can claim no moral authority as a human-rights leader.
Mere ratification of a treaty does not ensure these rights. However, human rights are never won without a fight. The adoption of economic human rights as constitutional standards would make them an explicit national goal and would provide new tools in the struggle to obtain these rights for more Americans.
What can you do? How can you help? How can you make a difference in the life of a child?
