tvc.dsj.org | November 5, 2019
COMMENTARY
13
Imagine Having No Place to Call Home
By Tony Magliano
Internationally syndicated
social justice and peace columnist
[email protected]
Just imagine for a moment that you have no home.
What will you do for meals today? Where will you
shower? Where will you sleep? If you have children,
how will you provide for them?
And how will you cope with being homeless to-
morrow, next week, next month?
Such imaginations are distressing. Aren’t they?
But let’s not allow these distressing imaginations
to cause us to ignore the sad crisis facing so many
children, women and men: the crisis of having no
place to call home.
Instead, let’s make an effort to better understand
why this devastating crisis exists. And what we can
do to help end it.
In its 2018 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to
Congress, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) stated that on a single night in
2018, approximately 553,000 people were homeless in
the United States.
The HUD number of 553,000 homeless people is
considered very low by numerous homeless advocacy
organizations. One reason is that HUD does not at-
tempt to include the number of homeless persons
who are temporarily staying with other people –
often needing to move from one location to another
(see: HUD 2018 report).
According to the U.S. Department of Education,
during the 2013-14 school year, more than 1.3 million
homeless children and youth were enrolled in public
schools.
But no matter how we look at it, there are definitely
lots of people in the U.S. who do not have a home.
Why?
“Blessed are those who help the
homeless, for they shall find a
home in heaven.”
To help find out why so many people are home-
less, I spoke with Annie Leomporra, grassroots
analyst for The National Coalition for the Homeless
(see: https://nationalhomeless.org). She said there are
many factors that contribute to homelessness, but the
most important reasons people find themselves home-
less are due to the lack of affordable housing, lack of
livable wage jobs, and the lack of access to general
healthcare and mental healthcare.
She added, “We need affordable health care that
does not keep people waiting up to six months to see
a mental health care provider. Homeless people have
a life span of only around 50 to 60 years. People are
dying every day on the streets from treatable illnesses.
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Because healthcare isn’t available to all, their illnesses
go unchecked.”
I also spoke with Paul Boden, director of the
Western Regional Advocacy Project – a homeless
advocacy organization based in San Francisco – who
also emphasized the prime importance of building
enough affordable housing.
Boden highlighted the fact that the mass homeless-
ness we now have today was nonexistent prior to the
early 1980s, largely due, unlike today, to the federal
government’s commitment back then to appropriating
much more money for large scale construction of af-
fordable housing for low and moderate income people.
In stark contrast to today’s Congress, 70 years ago
Congress passed “The Housing Act of 1949” with
the objective to provide “a decent home and a suit-
able living environment for every American family”
(see: https://bit.ly/33Ib22l).
Boden said, “Nothing ends homelessness like a
home.”
So please urge your two U.S. senators and con-
gressperson to end homelessness by appropriating
the increased funding necessary to provide affordable
housing for every homeless person, as well as health
care and a living wage for all. These are not give-a-
ways; these are God-given human rights.
And let’s be mindful that homeless people are
persons, human beings like you and me who deserve
and need our kindness.
In the spirit of the Beatitudes: “Blessed are those
who help the homeless, for they shall find a home in
heaven.”