“HOMELESS AND HELPLESS”: THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE NO HOME

In every town hot and cold, big and small…

the homeless population will explode. 

It will keep growing and getting worse as economies falter and wars erupt.

Citizens out of work, no money.

Masses out of their minds with nowhere to turn.

Others escaping war-ravaged countries…

nations of poverty, violence, crime and corruption.

No money, nowhere to go…

homeless, helpless, desperate, and needy.

All races, creeds, colors, and religions… 

gender-neutral… 

good and bad, kind and evil.

It’s global…

and it’s coming soon to a town near you. 

In the U.S., over half a million people experienced homelessness on a given night in 2018 according to a report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.  Almost 40,000 of those were veterans. 

About 100,000 of those are chronically homeless.

The backlash against the homeless in major California cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose is generating adverse headlines due to increasing violence against the homeless.

Makeshift tents line the streets in many areas of these metropolitan areas.  San Jose, the tenth largest city in U.S., has seen a sizeable increase of 42 percent of homeless people in the past two years.

Oakland had an even larger 47 percent increase, with a 17 percent increase SF and 12 percent in LA. In LA, public officials are demanding that the governor declare a state of emergency.

New York City, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Development, “houses” 14 percent of the nation’s homeless.  

Bye Bye Boomers

The largest group of chronically homeless is aged 65 and older, according to a study by researchers in LA, New York, and Boston. That number is expected to nearly triple by 2030. 

According to Dennis Culhane, Professor at the University of PA School of Social Policy & Practice, “Caring for this elderly group in homelessness is going to cost about $5 billion a year – that’s just for their health care and shelter, not to house them.” 

In California, because of the state’s high housing and renting costs, low-income seniors with fixed incomes, high illness rates, and out of jobs are most at risk to ending up on the streets. 

Globally, homelessness is also on the rise in wealthy countries.

According to the research group Our World in Data, the total number of people sleeping “rough” [on the streets] has more than doubled in the UK.

France has a greater percentage of homeless than the U.S., which comes in second followed by Chile, Ireland, and Spain.

According to a Yale University study, around 150 million people, or about 2 percent of the world’s population, are homeless, while more than 20 percent lack adequate housing. 

(Un) Affordable Housing

In 2017, approximately 37 million households were spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing. 

According to the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a full-time worker earning the minimum wage would need to work an average of 94.5 hours per week for all 52 weeks of the year to afford a one-bedroom rental home.