“Is the USA ready to address homelessness?” Does that sound strange to you? I’d think that question would be, “Is the USA ready to end homelessness?” To that, the answer is no. However, this country, this administration, is ready to address homelessness. Let’s examine addressing homelessness vs. ending homelessness.
At any given moment, there are 3.5 million homeless people in the United States. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population is families and children, with 1.35 million children being homeless during the year. In all, 150,000 veterans are homeless and 600,000 veterans will experience homelessness during the year.
Think about the number of jobs created and the money involved in the maintaining of homelessness. The services, outreach workers, organizational staffing, clinical staffing, shelters, case management, soup kitchens, subsidized housing and utilities.
To end homelessness, this country would need to create affordable housing for all. Good luck with that. Then there would have to be a living wage that would ensure that you could pay for your affordable housing. I won’t hold my breath on that one. Then we’d need universal health care.
Now keep your eyes on how this plays out in this administration. These three things would eliminate the top causes of homelessness, thus basically ending it. Unfortunately, we tend to be greedy and self-absorbed and do not respond to the everyday tragedy of homelessness with the same intensity as an earthquake in Haiti or an animal extinction.
I love the United States of America and would not rather be anywhere else. I’d just like us as the American people to show an equal amount of care and contribute an equal amount of money and show an equal amount of concern for those that find themselves homeless as you show for those of other countries and your dogs and cats.
