The Unseen Homeless

The face of homelessness is not really accurate as to who the homeless really is and that is one of the biggest reasons I feel that real help for the homeless is not coming. It is real easy to equate all of the homeless to the homeless person pushing the shopping cart talking to aliens because those homeless people are easy to see. I know people who claim that all homeless people want is money so they can buy alcohol. Of course, those people are plentiful and they are out there for us all to see.

The truth is that the majority of homeless people are invisible to most of us. They still work, their children go to school, they might even be in the line next to you in a store. They just don't have a place of their own. They may be living with friends or in a shelter but they are still productive members of society and they will take our help and use it to escape homelessness. Become politically active and educate your city council councilman to find ways to help.

This is my opinion. I am sure some will disagree with me concerning the face of homelessness and that is okay. I just hope you will do something to help.

Serve the Homeless Tonight or Prevent the Homeless Tomorrow

I found an article that discussed what should be done to prevent homelessness in America. It is a very long article but I have pared it down to make it more readable for people who do not like to read long articles but still want information. The link to the longer article is: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/end_homelessness.pdf

With 1 out of every 10 poor people in America facing homelessness at some time during an average year, current policies simply are not working. Homelessness stems from desperate poverty combined with unaffordable housing in communities that are much too strapped to support their most troubled citizens.

If housing were inexpensive, or people could earn enough to afford housing, very few

individuals would face homelessness. But housing costs have risen steadily across the country,

and they have skyrocketed in many areas. Further, the inability to afford housing is concentrated among households with incomes below the poverty level whose members account for the vast majority of people entering homelessness. At the same time, people with little education or job training find it increasingly difficult to earn enough money to raise their incomes above the poverty level, even if they are employed full-time and work overtime.

Virtually all federal programs related to homelessness focus on serving people who are already homeless. When assistance is restricted to those who are homeless tonight, not much can

be done to prevent homelessness tomorrow. Developing capacity to serve those who are already homeless while ignoring prevention does little to change the underlying problems among the very poor. Only policies that expand the availability of affordable housing to people with below poverty incomes will ensure stable homes for these individuals. However, policies during the past decade have moved in the opposite direction.

The results of a decade and a half of research to determine what works to end homelessness are fairly conclusive about the most effective approaches. Providing housing helps currently homeless people leave homelessness. It also prevents people from losing their homes. In fact, without housing, virtually nothing else works. Housing often needs to be accompanied by supportive services, at least temporarily, but such services without a housing component cannot end homelessness.

Evaluations of demonstration projects, and the experiences of providers in many communities around the country, also have shown that even the most chronic, most severely mentally

ill people can be brought off the streets and can live stable lives, if they are supplied with housing. The same is true for families headed by a mother struggling with mental illness.

With the appropriate help, even people with extensive histories of substance abuse have left the streets and obtained stable housing. Furthermore, the evidence shows not only that making these services available works to end homelessness, but also that, for long-term homeless people with substance abuse and mental health histories, these service provisions are virtually cost-neutral.

Homelessness in America

This blog will provide statistics about homelessness in America and will tell stories of people who are, or have beat homelessness in America. Let's start out with the most basic stat concerning homelessness in America: Approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year. (2007 study)

Most homeless people in America state the most common cause of homelessness as a lack of affordable housing. In fact, it accounts for 50 percent of all reasons given. It seems that many people equate homelessness to those strange looking people who walk the streets who are obviously mentally ill. The actual fact is that many people who do not appear to the common person to be homeless actually are. These are people who will take the help that is offered and beat homelessness, but that help is not as readily available as it could be.

This blog will tell you how to help stop homelessness. There are ways to help stop homelessness before homelessness begins. You may be surprised to know that donating to a utility company can actually help a person overcome being homeless. I will explain how in a future post. I hope you will bookmark this blog.