Proportionately speaking, in general, 17 out of 10,000 people experience homelessness, whereas with Pacific Islanders and Native Americans, 160 out of 10,000 experience homelessness.
HUD conducts an annual Point-in-Time Count. Typically the head count is made on a cold winter night in January. The prevailing assumption is cold weather makes the homeless get off the street to seek shelter indoors. Data from a head count made in January 2019 showed that the homeless are coming from every region of the country and represent every family status, gender category, racial and ethnic group. The data shows single individuals account for 66.7 percent of the homeless, with the remaining 33.3 percent are families (adults and children). Further calculations show 7.2 percent are veterans and 7.4 percent are unaccompanied children and young adults.
What about the Children?
Dr. Shankar-Brown notes while the homeless do not figure neatly into any one category, families with children are the fastest growing sector. The reasons are manifold: the lack of a fair living wage coupled with the severe lack of affordable housing makes home ownership impossible. Other factors point to racial discrimination, and the lack of accessible and affordable healthcare. For example, people who have disabilities often don’t have access to get good healthcare. Other factors such as addiction treatment and mental health services are inadequate to meet the needs of the homeless and of people who are on the verge of losing the roof over their heads. Dr. Shankar-Brown said, “I’ve known many folks who fell into homelessness and then fell into substance abuse.” This is the opposite of the assumption that substance abuse caused a person to become homeless. Instead it was the despair of being homeless that led to addiction. Substance abuse became a coping mechanism to endure the suffering and hardship of being homeless.
“Why is this happening?” Dr. Shankar-Brown asks. “Why as a society are we allowing this to happen? Why are ‘we the people’ allowing this kind of pain and suffering to exist in the United States when we have more than enough resources to share?”
Dr. Shankar-Brown’s own son is seventeen. She describes her son, Valen Siddhartha, as an amazing young activist. He recently designed a T-shirt in which all of the proceeds were given to a local emergency shelter. Her ten-year old daughter, Romila Sitara, also helps out in shelters. Over winter break, Romila worked with the community to collect hundreds of socks and create essential hygiene bags. Already they are following in her footsteps to become aware of poverty and to have a strong consciousness about homelessness, the same way her parents taught her. “Valen and Romila are asking heavy questions, that I also asked as a child and continue to grapple with today. They already feel the fractures of our world,” she said.
Rajni Shankar-Brown