|
Homelessness
By Fernando Garcia
Los Angeles, the home of Hollywood, movie stars, and the
homeless. Homelessness
in the United States is defined as:
(1) an individual who lacks a fixed,
regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and (2) an individual who
has a primary nighttime residence that is— (A) a supervised publicly
or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living
accommodations (including welfare hotels, congregate shelters, and
transitional housing for the mentally ill); (B) an institution that
provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be
institutionalized; or (C) a public or private place not designed
for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for
human beings. (US Code, Title 42, Chapter 119, Subchapter
I).
Homelessness is a social problem throughout all of the United
states. In 2004 an estimated 2.3 to 3.5 million people were homeless
(National
Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty 1). Los Angeles is known for being the home of
the homeless, with a homeless population of 82,291(LAHSA 3), only
recently passing San Francisco to have the highest homeless
population in the United States. Many of the homeless aid efforts
have been focused around sheltering and feeding today’s homeless and
while this is a necessity, it is more important and imperative that
the people experiencing homelessness are helped out of their current
situation. Structural issues are the biggest problems and those
which if fixed could do the most for the homeless. The key to
solving the homeless problem of Los Angeles is creating a system in
which the homeless are not only sheltered but also pushed towards
getting jobs and becoming self-reliant.
In order to help the homeless, we must first know who the
homeless are. In a recent census conducted by the Los Angeles
Homeless Service Authority(LAHSA) the Los Angeles homeless were
identified as being made up of 47,813 single men of which only
11%(5,270) are sheltered, 20,092 women of which only 12.6%(2,549)
are sheltered and 1,088 transgender individuals of which only
4.7%(49) are sheltered. Of these 82,291 homeless 19,882 are part of
a homeless family unit, of these families only 13.5%(2,680) are in
shelters or transitional housing(LAHSA 5).
Ethnically the Los Angeles homeless are disproportionate to
the rest of Los Angeles. In Los Angeles there are 39%(LAHSA 5)
African-American, as opposed to the 10.2%(US Census Bureau 1) of the
entire Los Angeles population. 29%(LAHSA 5) of the Los Angeles
homeless identified themselves as white, as opposed to the 51.6%(US
Census Bureau 1) of the entire Los Angeles Population. 25%(LAHSA 5)
of the Los Angeles Homeless are Hispanic, as opposed to the 49.7%(US
Census Bureau 1) of the entire Los Angeles
Population.
Many of the Los Angeles Homeless should be receiving aid for
past military service. In LAHSA’s recent census of homeless in Los
Angeles 16% of the respondents reported to have served in some kind
of military service in the past(LAHSA 6). In previous years there
have been many studies done about homeless veterans. Many of these
studies have found homeless veterans feeling that their “war
experiences … are directly related to their homelessness. Bitterness
is widespread among them”(Gottfried 81). These homeless people are
in dire need of federal aid, which they are entitled
to.
Amongst the Homeless are the Chronically homeless. A
chronically homeless individual is “an unaccompanied disabled
individual who has been continuously homeless for over one year”(HUD
1). This definition of the chronically homeless includes
disabling
condition was identified as a physical or mental disability,
depression, alcohol or drug use, or chronic health problems.
In a recent homeless count
found that 49% of the Los Angeles homeless fall under chronically
homeless(LAHSA 6).
Homelessness across the country happens for different reasons
and to very different people, the only real common factor amongst
the homeless is poverty, yet from that point on why some become
homeless and others don’t is greatly debated. The two main standing
points are 1st: that individuals make bad decisions and
are unable to manage the consequences and 2nd: that the
federal government has provided inadequate services to aid those in
need before becoming homeless. These viewpoints describe the
homeless as either “lazy, shiftless, and prone to criminality, …[or]
as victims of political and economic forces beyond their
control”(Blau 33). Homelessness can be attributed to four main
structural factors: “(1) lack of low-cost housing, (2) high poverty
rates, (3) poor economic conditions, and (4) lack of community
mental health care facilities”(Elliott 114). Lack of low-cost
housing is the leading cause of homelessness, “those concerned with
homelessness blame the shortage of low-cost housing on local, state,
and federal policies”(Gottfried 62). With a lack of low-cost
housing, it can be hard to pay for a place to live even with a
steady job. Homelessness is not always caused by lazy people who are
unwilling to work, but also by expensive housing which hard working
minimum wage earners cannot afford, “the large gap between household
income levels and local rent levels is considered to be a structural
force that create a population at risk of homelessness”(Shlay 148).
The Chronically homeless are increasingly common amongst the
homeless following the US’s change in policy about the Mentally ill,
“The plight of chronically mentally ill Americans today is a direct
result of the nation’s twenty-year experimentation with
‘deinstitutionalization,’ the release from state-run asylums and
return to their home communities of chronic mental patients”(Kosof
18).
Homelessness has been seen throughout the world in many
different societies and has been dealt with in very different ways.
The two main standpoints on how to deal with homelessness are that
(a) the government should not have to play any kind of role in it
and private local charities should do what they can, or (b) that the
government should be directly involved in helping the homeless
through federal programs(Gottfried 85). There are three types of
shelters, each helpful to the homeless but each serving very
different purposes: emergency shelters, transitional housing and
permanent housing. Emergency shelters are self explanatory, in case
of emergencies people can go to these, if there is room, which is
usually not the case. These can be used for an overnight stay or as
a daytime shelter, but “this approach is criticized because it is a
temporary solution, often of poor quality, providing an unsafe
environment frequently avoided by homeless persons”(Shlay 149). Even
though this type of shelter is useful and necessary for emergency
situations, it is not the solution to homelessness. Transitional
housing is used for longer periods of time, through which an
individual of family can hopefully get back on their own two feet.
Transitional housing sometimes also includes services like child
care, education, job training, counseling, medical care and drug
treatment. Transitional housing is important because it not only
gives people a place to sleep at night but also “aid[s] homeless
people in making the transition to permanent housing”(Shlay 149),
which is ultimately the goal for any kind of aid. Permanent housing
is the third and most valued housing for the homeless. Permanent
housing usually takes the form of Single-Room-Occupancy and although
highly effective and aspired to as aid, SRO’s have not been very
common. SRO’s began disappearing in the late 1970’s.
“The transformation of the city economy from
manufacturing to service industries created a demand for the
upgrading of old housing stock. When urban professionals needed
housing near the central business district, real estate developers
initiated a process of gentrification that often targeted
single-room occupancy(SRO) hotels”(Blau 75).
Permanent housing has become rare because
“developing long-term, low income housing is confounded by the
decreased availability of construction and rent subsidies, large
building acquisition and rehabilitation costs”(Shlay 150). These
kinds of shelters would be the most beneficial to the homeless but
are the hardest to come by and create.
Mississippi is an example of government help which at the
same time helps those on the receiving end move get back on their
own feet. Mississippi created a Work First program in which people
on Welfare would have to spend thirty five hours a week in job
training classes in order to keep their federal aid. This Program
also worked with local employers who were encouraged to hire welfare
clients by allowing them to pay only 1 dollar an hour for the first
six months, while the government paid the workers $4.15 in order for
them receive minimum wage. The results for this program were
astonishing. Welfare cases in the areas where the Work First program
was implemented dropped by 19% and new welfare applications dropped
by 65%(Gottfried 88).
In a completely different scene, Manhattan, New York City,
there is a place called the Heights, one of the first
Single-Room-Occupancy(SRO) programs to be created after their
demolition in the 1970’s for use as hotels and apartments that would
make more money, which had created a housing shortage(Kosof 80). The
Heights is a hotel like place, in which various homeless from
different backgrounds are able to live together in a permanent home,
the first they’ve had since they became homeless. In this community
like setting fifty five people are able to live once again like the
rest of the Country does every night, “the heights is one permanent
solution to an ever-growing problem-the shortage of housing for poor
and low-income people. Some say that it is like a drop of water in
the sea. Indeed it is”(Kosof 90).
The key to the solution for the Los Angeles Homeless lies not
in private charities but in federal run aid which give those which
are entitled to benefits their aid and to those who want to rise out
of poverty the help they need. In a place like Los Angeles,
emergency shelters, transitional housing and permanent housing are
necessary in order to house the homeless. The emergency shelters
will always be needed due to circumstantial reasons, but in should
not be the goal of homeless aid to merely shelter the homeless.
Shelters should be a base for recovering homeless who, with federal
aid, are trying to get back on their own. We should try to get the
homeless of the streets and help them get started so that they may
eventually live on their own without federal
aid.
Los Angeles
Homelessness is a topic which has been debated since it’s
initial appearance, and there are some who say that it is not our
duty to care for those whom some believe are “homeless, by
choice”(Kosof 12). Some Homeless Studies have shown that placing
homeless in transitional or permanent housing does not always end
the problem, and the people end up back in shelters due to problems
other than economic struggle. The issue isn’t in creating second
chances for the homeless, it is in that some homeless simply do not
care enough to improved their situation. Issues of Drug and Alcohol
abuse have always been present in amongst the homeless and are
usually self inflicted problems which society should not be
responsible for, “drug addicts are regarded not as sick people, but
as objects of scorn”(Gottfried 57). In a recent homeless count of
Los Angeles conducted by LAHSA 35% of homeless have reported using
drugs and 40% have reported using alcohol(LAHSA 8). Substance use is
a personal choice that the individual must take responsibility for
and some believe that issues involving such problems should not fall
onto the society to mend. Alcohol has become one of the most
commonly abused ‘drugs’ and has had a strong presence amongst the
homeless. In a Chicago homeless study 33.2% of the homeless
questioned reported have alcohol problems, and 10.1% of these same
homeless reported to have had an alcohol problem big enough to
interfere with their work(Rossi 156). Drug abuse has become a large
issue in the United States and has had a large effect on the
homeless, “some suggest that the arrival of crack cocaine in the
mid-1980’s partially explains the increase of persons who have moved
from precarious living accommodations to the streets”(San Diego
Regional Task Force on the Homeless 81). Most people believe that
giving money to homeless beggars will only further sink them into
poverty because they will only use that money for drugs and
alcohol.
Some believe that homelessness is not a problem that stems
from society. Some believe that it is up to the individual to raise
himself out of poverty through hard work and perseverance, that
“neither poverty nor homelessness will be cured by government
handouts, but only by the individual taking steps to improve his or
her own life”(Gottfried 85). Why should the rest of society pay for
the mistakes of a few?
Alcohol and drug abuse are high amongst the homeless yet it
is important to know that these problems are usually not the cause
of homelessness.
“Substance abuse may be the proximate cause
of some homelessness, but the real cause lies in other underlying
factors. People abuse drugs and alcohol because their economic and
emotional needs are not being met. In any analysis of homelessness,
it is theses factors, rather than the substance abuse alone, that
need be addressed”(Blau 27).
Substance abuse is present amongst many
homeless but it is not the reason for their homelessness and in few
cases is it the direct cause for their homelessness. Alcohol and
drug abuse usually occur after a person becomes homeless, “although
substance abuse may reduce people to life on the streets, alcohol
and drug use more frequently serve as a coping mechanism for
enduring the boredom and trauma of living on the streets”(Criswell
47). The stereotypical homeless man is one who begs for money all
day only to spend it on alcohol or drugs later that night, “the
public perception that most homeless people are alcoholics or drug
addicts may stem from the visibility of homeless people drinking, or
behaving in an intoxicated manner. Such individuals easily attract
the public’s attention, while homeless persons who do not drink or
use drugs are often unseen”(San Diego Regional Task Force on the
Homeless 80). Homelessness stems from things other than drug or
alcohol abuse as well. Because a person is homeless does not mean
that they do not work or try to improve their situation,
homelessness is also caused by the lack of aid and the low minimum
wage.
“Median monthly rents rose by 192 percent
between 1970 and 1983 (from $108 to $315) while the monthly income
rents rose by 192 percent during the same time period (from $525 to
$1033). As a result, the rent to income ration rose so sharply that
by 1983, 22 percent of renters paid 50 percent or more of their
income towards rent”(Elliott 115).
Homelessness is not usually an issue of
working hard or not, but of the difficulty of sustaining one’s self
when there is very little opportunity, “unfavorable structural
conditions exist prior to increases in homelessness, although
personal problems may either determine who becomes homeless under
unfavorable structural conditions or be the result of the stress of
living without a home”(Elliott 116). The United States Government is
now in a position in which it has the ability to aid those which
need aid, “HUD today not only has the capacity, but is better
positioned than ever to help communities take on the challenges of
the 21st century”(Cuomo 94). |
