Tables groan under familiar dishes. Relatives and friends gather to gossip, argue and break bread together. After sharing Thanksgiving meals, most Americans return to their own homes unless they are among the more than half a million people who have no place to go home to.
In this, the wealthiest nation in history, we have become inured to lines of people waiting to get a bed in a shelter, rows of tents pitched on city sidewalks and people pushing shopping carts loaded with bundles. Homelessness has become a horrible new normal.
Thanksgiving provides a welcome break for many of these Americans. Churches and social service agencies organize meals of turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Restaurants even get into the spirit of this celebration of plenty.
The harshness of this new normal sets back in by Friday, the day after the holiday.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that more than half a million people are without permanent shelter on any given night. A third live in their cars.
One quarter of the homeless are children. If they are boys, they often are kicked out of shelters to fend for themselves on the streets. The nation allows children to live under those bridges or in those cars or to huddle in those doorways.
The stereotypical image of homelessness is a ragged figure shuffling behind a shopping cart or slumped on a bus bench. But homelessness often happens because of a job loss, the loss of the family breadwinner or domestic violence.
If, as HUD says, almost two in 10 citizens are homeless, the reality is that the person putting gas in the car next to yours might have no place to sleep tonight.
Homelessness is not always a symptom of personal weakness or moral turpitude. It is actually a symptom of an America that is not functioning at its best.
Sometimes preventing homelessness takes only a little help, like a providing the few hundred dollars a family needs to get over an emergency. Solving institutional homelessness will require more.
Thankfully, a country whose historic roots include the vision and courage of the Pilgrims can solve the crisis of homelessness if we make it the priority it should be.
This “new normal” would be worthy of celebration.
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(22) comments
There isn't any silver bullet to end homelessness. Never has been, never will be. Trying to find one is like trying to hold back the tide with your hands. Total waste of time and money. How many of you have ever been homeless?
According to HUD in 2918 553,000 US resident were homeless. That’s a bit less than the 68 million homeless the “2 out of 10” figure used in the piece would have you believe are homeless.
Yeah, 57, I slipped a decimal point in my post - 2 out of 10 ....is 66 million, not 6.6 million. I admit my mistake. I wonder if the IME will admit their mistake.
Having worked with the homeless and the mentally ill- I have insight here that most do not have.
Many homeless people cannot live in any structured environment. They do not adhere to established rules for housekeeping, maintenance, or nominal book- keeping duties or reporting. Many have undiagnosed problems and mental illnesses that prevent them from engaging in jobs or duties. They simply cannot cope in the world as it is structured.
Here's the shocker.
Very often, the homeless are homeless because they want to be. Well intentioned people ASSUME that the homeless want homes. Many do not.
I find it fascinating that people with rich lives assume they have the answers to these problems. As though the homeless want what they have. Go work in a homeless shelter for 6 weeks- before telling the rest of us to be compassionate. You are a little late to the game. I shall leave you with my favorite quote- the one that applies to our very best educated and brightest who run about the world- telling us what the solutions are.
“Most of the harm in the world is done by good people, and not by accident, lapse, or omission. It is the result of their deliberate actions, long persevered in, which they hold to be motivated by high ideals toward virtuous ends.”
― Isabel Paterson, God of the Machine
Homeless by choice makes makes perfect sense. Since you have been on the front lines with these homeless people I am sure you have seen your share of the estimated 40,000 veterans who are homeless. Two-thirds of homeless Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in one major sample had post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Actually, I have. It's an odd thing of course, for a nation that loves to fight multiple wars on multiple fronts- that PTSD is entirely preventable. But using kids for cannon fodder has always been our way- we like to tell the kids they are heroes and patriots to ensure more will sign up for the next war. We never run out of wars.
HF, outstanding comment. Thank you.
You are on it!
Yet not one of you bleeding heart liberals will let one under privileged person or homeless person live on your property or in your home(s). Pelosi has a wall... an environmental and social disaster in her back yard and cares not! Such loser liberal USER hypocrites.
California has led the states in keeping standards for CO2 reductions as per the Paris accord. They have resisted the roll backs of the EPA, The Clean Water Act, as well as vehicle emission standards. I think a good case could be made that California`s social problems were intensely aggravated by Ronald Reagans tax breaks.
'The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development reports that more than half a million people are without permanent shelter on any given night. A third live in their cars.'
500,000 above. Then:
'If, as HUD says, almost two in 10 citizens are homeless, the reality is that the person putting gas in the car next to yours might have no place to sleep tonight.'
If the population is 330 million, 20% is 6.6 million. So, what number is it?
And, another defective, your numbers seem made up. Look at a real site:
https://www.usich.gov/tools-for-action/map/#fn[]=1400&fn[]=2900&fn[]=6000&fn[]=9900&fn[]=13500
CA has the highest homeless population - by far - of any States - 130,000. NY is next, at 92K. In your example, TN has a population of 6.8 million. 15% of that is 1.02 million. Yet, this map shows TN at 7800 homeless. Your numbers are way off, and fraudulent.
The homeless industry complex will never allow the end of homelessness. There is too much money in it...
Why do areas with the most homeless seem to be Democratic run cities? What did Nancy Pelosi do about the huge homeless problem in her own district? Why do democrats only talk about getting more illegals in the country and not helping the homeless American citizens?
I agree with article. As Far as Pelosi, what are the housing costs in her district. Could that contribute to the issue. Too many people in this country live paycheck to paycheck often working multiple jobs and more than 40 hours a week. Living wage?
From US News and World Report
statistics from 2018
The 10 states with the highest number of people living below the poverty line:
Tennessee 15.3 %
South Carolina 15.3 %
Oklahoma 15.6 %
Alabama 16.8 %
Kentucky 16.9 %
Arkansas 17.2 %
West Virginia 17.8 %
Louisiana 18.6 %
New Mexico 19.5 %
Mississippi 19.7 %
What do these states have in common? Hmmmm
Moscow Mitch hasn’t taken up any of the almost 50 bills passed by the
House. Could be there are items in those bills that could help these people and those referenced in the editorial - and the rest of us for that matter. with so many living in poverty, what have these other high profile Republican senators done for the people who elected them?
Mitch McConnell
Rand Paul
Lindsey Graham
Marsha Blackburn
Tom Cotton
John Kennedy
Jim Inhofe
We all pay the salaries of those in Congress. Perhaps those elected should be on a salary scale with pay and benefits tied to how the people in their state or district are doing.
What do these states have in common??? Let me guess...let me guess. I think I know the answer....They are all are REBUBLICON controlled states. [tongue]
Using your logic the jobs listed below in the IME classified means anyone getting one of these jobs is well above the poverty level. According to the U.S. Census the FPL is $12, 140 annual salary.
Housekeeping Lead - $15/hr
Housekeepers - $14/hr
Bartender/Server - $12/hr + tips
Maintenance Tech - $16/hr (PT)
Housemen - $14/hr
Zenergy $14 for a janitor
Nannies Starting pay $17 hr
Black Tie Skis $18-$22 + Tips, bonuses and pass bonus.
So dishwashers, janitors and housekeepers are making bank.
Not sure what your point is.With a shortage of worker bees in the Valley you have to offer those wages just to attract workers. Even at that, rent eats up a big portion of their paycheck. The minimum wage in Id is $7.25 while the Republicon controlled states AL, MS, TN, LA, and SC have NO minimum wage.
The point is, not the prevailing wage but the cost of living for the area. People living below the poverty level in Hailey is 17% equal to the States AP is pointing out.
You are correct about the minimum wages in the States you identified, but you mislead because Employers are subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act and must pay the current Federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, the same as Idaho.
Fishhog, those workers don't live here. They are the commuters that clog our highways. Then, they send out much of what they make to their 'home country'; money that will never be taxed again for our community. The 'circle' broken.
if your concerns are real, you would consider trailer parks an option.
Only if I get to own the land
...asphalt
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