There was a time when Americans looked eastward to India, to cite this nation of over one billion, nearly 17.7% of the total world population, as a hot zone for the homeless and poverty. In the latter part of the Twentieth Century, the prayerful countenance of Mother Teresa became the global face that reflected India’s homelessness and poverty. Many of us remember Mother Teresa’s words in 1994, “The spiritual poverty of the Western World is much greater than the physical poverty of our people.” Her words have almost become prophetic. The west has long been mired in its own bastion of spiritual poverty. Its skyrocketing income inequality has now given rise to great physical poverty and the unprecedented rise of homelessness in America.
As we approach the first quarter of the Twenty-first Century, India is no longer viewed by the world as the primary hot zone for homelessness and poverty. Ironically, it is the oft-perceived wealthy United States that is unable to get an accurate assessment of how many Americans are homeless. One statistical tracker, statista, asserted that in 2019 there were about 567,715 homeless people living in the United States. It is further asserted that the number of homeless had been steadily decreasing for over ten years. But then things changed. As of 2017 the number began spiking again, and this was before the pandemic hit. With all due respect to the mounting numbers of the homeless, it is now coming to light that not only do we lack accurate current information about the growing homeless population, but the true numbers of the homeless might not be known
for years.
The Great Unaccounted
How can you accurately count a population that is perpetually on the move and has no forwarding address? According to an op-ed issued by the editorial board of
the New York Times this past January, there is the stark admission that “We don’t know exactly how many people are homeless in America. We don’t even have a particularly good guess.” Attempts made by state, local and federal governments to get an actual head count of the homeless are not only ineffective but inept.
A typical head count might mean government agency staff workers collect the numbers of the homeless that have been reported at shelters on a given night, without taking into account the numbers who are unsheltered, sleeping in abandoned buildings, alleys and parked cars, and in front of doorways. Others are doubling up and couch surfing, by relying on friends or the kindness of strangers. Dr. Shankar-Brown is quick to point out, “Even when we see numbers in the media and in reports, those of us who are at the ground level know these numbers are severely underestimated because of the way we do counts in the U.S. and the diverse dynamics of homelessness.”
Compounding matters further, many cities routinely clear out homeless encampments. For example, last year in New York City officials doubled the number of “cleanups” by clearing out people who were already displaced. These actions were contrary to the guidelines set forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that advised cities to allow the homeless to shelter in place. The CDC CDC explained that clearing encampments “increases the potential for infectious disease spread” by causing people to “disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers.”
Rajni Shankar-Brown’s FSEM class gathers outside the Volusia County Historic Courthouse in DeLand.