Why Homeless?
There are many reasons why a person becomes homeless. Substance abuse, alcoholism and mental illness are the usual suspects but they minimize the full brunt of economic reality and the widening gap between those who have money and those who do not. People with low incomes are the most at risk of becoming homeless, and this is largely due to the lack of affordable housing and the lack of a fair living wage. Dr. Shankar-Brown notes, “There is always a prevalent assumption that if an individual experiencing homelessness would just get a job, then they could pay to keep a roof over their heads. The reality is more than 40% of people experiencing homeless are working two jobs and still do not have a home because they cannot afford one. Millions of individuals, families, children and youth are lacking basic human rights and trying daily to survive in a system that has been rigged.”
The most recent report issued by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), shows that the number of the known homeless in the United States rose for the fourth straight year. About 580,000 people were counted as living on the streets or in temporary shelters at the start of 2020. But this data was reported prior to the pandemic and reveals that homelessness was already rising, especially in the large cities. Also prior to the pandemic, homelessness among veterans and families did not get better. The fact that homelessness among veterans and families is not improving is cause for alarm because the government deployed federal housing programs that specifically targeted veterans and families.
From the time Dr. Rajni Shankar-Brown was a child until she became a young adult, she spent her days volunteering in soup kitchens. When she went to a shelter to play with her friends, they didn’t have food to eat. It was the same way in India. Along the road in Chennai (formerly known as Madras) she traveled to school accompanied by her brother. There were large numbers of children begging for food. She saw her own face in the faces of these children and wanted to know why this was happening. “Why as a society are we allowing this to happen?” Whether Rajni was traveling through India or the United States, she came to know there is never just one story about how a person becomes homeless. “It is imperative to understand there are many stories and they are all very different, and yet all deeply interconnected,” Shankar-Brown explained.
Who are the Homeless?
Black and Latino communities have disproportionately high numbers among the homeless. According to the latest HUD data, as reported in the New York Times, the numbers speak for themselves. “About 40 percent of people counted were Black, compared with their 13 percent representation in the population, and nearly a quarter of homeless people self-identified as Latino, a group that makes up about 18 percent of all Americans.” Other data derived from the National Alliance to End Homelessness indicates “Pacific Islanders and Native Americans are most likely to be homeless in America when compared to all other racial/ethnic groups.”
Student Christa Assi
Student Xavier Sanders