Homeless Man Chooses Jail Rather Than The Streets

It is sad when a person without a home would rather commit a crime and go to jail than stay homeless living on the streets. The “security” of four walls, a cot, and three meals is better than open sky, a hard sidewalk, and no food.

What’s wrong with our society when we allow people to choose jail over homelessness?

Here’s the beginning of the article:

James Cox makes no apologies for his crimes because they got him three meals a day and a bed to sleep in for the first time in ten years.

"You may think this is a jail but to me it's the Hollywood Hilton, no joke," Cox said Thursday night from the Olmstead County Adult Detention Center.

Last Friday James made a choice that he would no longer be homeless. Shunned, he said, by a system that cannot save him Cox broke 22-hundred dollars worth of windows at a Rochester Chevy dealer, walked into the police station, and said, "Book me, and put me in jail."

"I know I broke the law but no one would help me, I paid into the system and the system got me here," Cox said.

James is no saint. He admits to being a drug dealer for 20 years. In the last 10, he's lived on the streets. "I asked for help, do you have a better suggestion because if you do I am willing to listen or try," Cox asked.

He says he'd be happy to work. But who will hire a man off the streets, who can't read or write, and is nearly crippled by arthritis.

"In this day and age, would you hire me?"

And so he calls a cell like this home for as long as he can.

Is Suing Cities A Way To Resolve Homelessness?

Laguna Beach is one of those quiet, secluded beachside communities behind the Orange Curtain (also known as Orange County, California), and thanks to MTV, has become a destiny for many people. Including homeless folks.

This small city is currently dealing with 70 homeless people sleeping on their streets and beaches. Their law enforcement officers have become the first responders to homelessness.

So, like their big-city counterparts to the north, Laguna Beach was sued by the ACLU for “criminalizing” homelessness. The city recently settled. KPCC describes the settlement:

Under the settlement, the city says police will no longer cite, arrest, or harass people under state law for sleeping in public places, unless it’s a matter of public health or safety. And the city’s agreed to toss out or seal previous citations and convictions for violating the “anti-sleeping” ordinance.

Now, law enforcement cannot do anything when homeless people are sleeping throughout the city. Is this resolving homelessness?

The city of Los Angeles had a similar settlement with the ACLU.

I, personally, struggle with such tactics. I have voiced my concerns with the head of the ACLU of Los Angeles in the past. (And she will also be one of our columnists for the "new" homeless blog we will be rolling out soon.) Cities need to have the tools to keep their streets safe, clean, and secure. They should not have to be afraid to enforce their laws and ordinances for fear of being sued.

Frankly, if ACLU wants to truly resolve homelessness, they should sue the County, the State, and the federal government for not having enough permanent housing and shelter beds for all of its citizens.

People should have the right to be housed. I know budgets are tight. And jurisdictions would freak out if they were mandated to shelter their homeless. But what’s the alternative? Hamstring law enforcement by not allowing them to secure our streets?

Housing homeless people is a much better solution than suing cities to allow them to sleep on our streets.


(Pic from www.photobird.com/davidroy)

Why Under-Employment Is A More Accurate Gage On Poverty

The LAobserved.com blog explains clearly the difference between unemployment statistics and “under-employment” numbers.

When public officials and the media release monthly unemployment numbers they are describing the number of people of people who are jobless, or looking for work based on survey estimates. But this survey does not include an important factor—people who are under-employed, with part-time jobs that don’t make enough to overcome poverty. It also does not include people who have given up on employment, and are not even trying to find work.

Why is this important? In May, L.A. County’s unemployment rate was 11.6 percent, but it’s under-employment rate was estimated at 18 percent. A significant jump, and a more accurate gage on poverty.

Such statistics are also ominous signs for a region that is being hit hard by the economy and budget cuts. Here’s what LAObserved also writes:

When households lose the income and the social inclusion provided by employment, they are more likely to sink into poverty, require public assistance, and, experience family dysfunctions. The data about poverty and need for human services that has been reviewed indicates that impacts of the current recession are likely to include:

• An 18.5 percent poverty rate in Los Angeles County with nearly 2 million people in poverty, and 17.0 percent poverty rate in California with nearly 6.7 million people in poverty.

• Poverty rates for adults without a high school diploma that are twice as high as the overall poverty rate.

• 1.5 million impoverished residents in Los Angeles County and 5 million impoverished residents in California without cash aid if current enrollment rates in public assistance programs continue.

• The Medi-Cal Only caseload is projected to peak at 1,876,000 residents in Los Angeles County and 6,600,000 residents in California.

• Los Angeles County's Food Stamp caseload is projected to increase 17 percent to 786,000 people, leaving 1,175,000 impoverished residents without Food Stamps, and California's Food Stamp caseload is projected to increase 21 percent to if the current enrollment rates do not increase.


(Pic from http://libn.com)

Make It Count? The War on Poverty Using 45 Year Old Tactics Won’t Work

In the battle to end homelessness in America one of the most effective tools for communities struggling with homelessness is the homeless count. Every two years, the federal government mandates such a count if a community wants to receive federal funds.

Knowing how many people are living on the streets and who they are is important. It helps direct resources, helps communities design services and housing, and frankly, makes communities more accountable to whether they are succeeding in resolving homelessness or not.

So what about our country’s war on poverty? That 1960’s national initiative to reduce and end poverty was a bold and altruistic plan to help the most hurting citizens in our country.

Of course, homelessness today is a resounding indictment that the 1960’s War on Poverty failed.

And to make matters worse, today in 2009, our country is still using the 1960’s approach to measuring poverty—poverty measured solely on food costs. (Whether a family is hungry.) Not a good approach to defining the poverty level for a family of four when other more important indicators should be considered. Specifically, the cost of housing, child care, health care, work expenses, and other basic necessities.

How does our country truly battle poverty when we have a flawed system on even knowing what poverty is?

A couple of U.S. Senators introduced the “Measuring American Poverty Act” that would update its poverty gauge. But the bill was introduced in September 2008 and never became law. It is floundering in federal bureaucracy.

If this country cannot even agree on defining poverty in America, how can we seriously invest in real solutions to resolve poverty and homelessness?


(Pic of President Johnson via http://www.dailyyonder.com/)

Very Disturbing: Down and Out (and Deceased) in Beverly Hills

This is very, very disturbing news:

Man found hanging by neck outside Beverly Hills City Hall

Daily News Wire Services

Updated: 06/29/2009 06:51:34 AM PDT

BEVERLY HILLS - An investigation was under way today into the death of a man, believed to have been a transient in his 30s, who was found hanging by the neck from a stairwell outside Beverly Hills City Hall, police said.

The body was found around 1:45 p.m. Sunday at 455 N. Rexford Drive, said Sgt. Kelly Spedden of the Beverly Hills Police Department.

The man was hanging from the second-story railing of a stairwell, Spedden said. What had been used to tie him was not immediately reported.

``This person is not a celebrity, and we believe he was a local homeless person,'' he said, adding that the man's death is suspected of being the result of suicide.


(Pic from http://z.about.com/d/gocalifornia)

When Celebrities Use Their Star Power To Change The World

With all of the tributes being broadcast around the world for Michael Jackson, it is certainly appropriate to highlight his work toward helping the homeless, hungry, and needy around the globe.

When he penned the song “We Are The World” back in 1985, Jackson helped start a movement among celebrities who would use their star power to help change the world.

The lyrics said it all. “We are the world, we are the children, We are the ones who make a brighter day so let’s start giving…”

And billions of people were moved by celebrities wanting to make a difference. Through: USA For Africa, Farm Aid, Live Aid, and Hands Across America.

One of PATH’s very own original supporters, producer Ken Kragen, was part of this movement to raise funds for the homeless and hungry.

Let’s hope that the spirit of giving among celebrities doesn’t die with Michael Jackson. But, instead, let’s hope that celebrities are inspired by Jackson’s willingness to use his star power for change. Hopefully, more celebrities will lend their names to good causes, raise millions of dollars for hurting people, and advocate for significant change.

(The pic was taken yesterday by one of our staff members who went there after the Hollywood Project Y!MBY Connect Day.)

Back To The Basics… Count, Care, and Connect

For almost 30 years, now, homelessness has ravaged people’s lives and has been entrenched in communities all over the country. Shelters have been built by the thousands. Food banks have been set up. A whole nonprofit world has geared itself toward addressing homelessness.

Now, permanent affordable housing is the new game in town. Federal policy, foundation guidelines, and local jurisdictions have jumped on this “new” approach to solving homelessness. Build a 50 unit apartment building, staff it with case managers and services, and this will get people off the streets. It’s true, it works.

But there are barriers. Finding land. Finding neighborhoods that won’t freak out. Finding millions and millions of dollars to build just one development. Finding the money, year after year, to fund the services in the building. It is not an easy task.

So the nonprofit world needs to go back to the basics, back to its roots where most agencies were created… goodhearted community volunteers who set up shelters, food banks, and social service agencies in the 1980s.

Perhaps we will engage a new generation of community workers to look at how to solve a human tragedy that seems to be getting worse? Tent cities, RV’s, cars, and encampments are being established all over the country. Perhaps a new community effort could help design ways to build more affordable housing, prop up an economy to provide more living wage jobs, and strengthen a social safety net that frankly is failing.

Today, in Hollywood and West Hollywood, California hundreds of community volunteers are conducting its third annual “Project Y!MBY (Yes! In My Backyard) Connect Day.” It was the first connect day established in L.A. County, and patterned after the San Francisco model. They will be connecting homeless folks to services and housing.

Next month, Long Beach, California will be performing a unique homeless count and survey that will both examine how the community’s existing service system operates and identify the most vulnerable people living on the streets. The goal is to re-examine how homelessness is addressed in this beach-side city. (Here’s a story about this in today’s local paper.)

This is a positive phenomenon in this L.A. region: communities are starting to be engaged. Again, like the 1980s. They are helping to count who is living on their streets. To care for them. And to connect people to services and housing.

Perhaps, just perhaps, this is a new movement to address homelessness with a smart and creative approach. We can only hope.


(Pic from www.biblical-life.com)

NYC Putting A Gun to the Head Of Homeless Shelters

There is a ticking time bomb for programs that shelter homeless families in New York City. The Mayor is mandating that all shelters will receive less financial support if the families they take in are not housed within six months of entry.

City officials describe these tough rules as just good business practice. Money talks, they believe.

But this perspective is the same paradigm on homelessness that has been circulating across this country for the last five years. Basically, the perspective is simple: shelters manage homelessness, shelters do not solve homelessness, shelters are the cause for homelessness.

We all know that shelters are a temporary, very short-term program for someone who is living on the streets. The long-term solution is to provide a person a permanent home with support services.

So if a city is not building enough permanent housing, the shelter system gets clogged up. People languish in the shelter world for years. So whose fault is this? The shelter?

To require that shelters have to place a homeless family in a permanent apartment within six months is unrealistic... When there are not enough homes. (Because if there were enough homes, we wouldn’t need shelters!) When there are not enough living-wage jobs for people in this economy. When childcare can cost up to $10 per hour, more than minimum wage.

This decree is coming from a mayor who five years ago this month (June 2004) promised that he would reduce the city’s 38,000 homeless population by two-thirds. When other cities were designing Ten Year Plans to End Homelessness, he upped the ante by making his a Five Year Plan.

Did he accomplish his goal? Of course not. So who do we punish now, for the failure of these homelessness plans?

Why of course… the shelter.


(Pic from www.surfsantamonica.com)

Is California Becoming A Banana Republic—economically poor, run by a select few?

Such a harsh question for a state that is known to be the home to Hollywood, Silicon Valley, and world-renowned beaches.

But a recent study is showing that 17 percent of Californians are living in poverty. Almost 1 of every 5 persons in the state. Here is what the study is showing:

-- The poverty rate is projected to reach 18.5 percent in Los Angeles, with nearly 2 million people in poverty and 17 percent in California, with nearly 6.7 million people in poverty.

-- The share of impoverished children who are aided by cash grants declined from 74 percent in 1991 to 51 percent in 2008. If current enrollment rates in public assistance programs continue, there are projected to be 1.5 million impoverished residents in Los Angeles County and 5.1 million in California without cash aid when impacts of the recession peak.

-- The annual number of child welfare emergencies in Los Angeles County is projected to peak at 195,000 and in California at 581,000, annual increases over 2007 of 28,000 and 88,000 cases respectively.

-- The rate of medical complications among newborns is projected to increase to 20.2 percent in Los Angeles County and 21.5 percent statewide - an increase of almost 13,000 impacted babies annually in California.

-- By the end of 2008, both the growth rate and number of eviction filings in Los Angeles County already exceed the total increases experienced in the 1990 recession. California recorded an unprecedented 253,000 foreclosures in 2008, more than three times the peak of foreclosures in the 1990 recession.

So is California one of those poverty-stricken, backward countries that we typically see exaggerated in movies? Let’s see… large wealth inequities (take a drive through the Westside of Los Angeles then to the South of the city), poor infrastructure, failing schools, “backward” economy, and constant budget deficits.

Does it sound familiar?


(Pic from http://theinvisiblehand.typepad.com)

1,000 Million Hungry People. In The World.

It’s a significant number. One billion people.

The United Nations recently announced that one billion people are hungry on our earth today. One of six persons in the world. Experts blame this sad international social problem on war, inflation and political instability. All man-made reasons that could very well be resolved.

This is the highest number of hungry people in the world ever.

I remember when I was in college I studied world hunger. Advocates back then, worked hard to resolve world hunger—The slogan at the time was: “How do you solve world hunger? One person at a time.”

Such a catchphrase today almost seems flippant, definitely not realistic. Instead it should be: “One country at a time.”

Of course, if America, one of the most advanced, richest, and most powerful countries in the world has 1 in 100 of its citizens living on their streets, why are we surprised that 1 in 6 persons in a poorer world are hungry?

Perhaps America ought to set an example for the rest of a hungry world. Perhaps America ought to resolve its own homelessness crisis as a way of inspiring the rest of the world to resolve its hunger calamity.


(Pic from washingtonpost.com)

Local Community Engagement At Its Best

(LOS ANGELES/HOLLYWOOD) – Project Y!MBY (Yes! In My Backyard) is mobilizing neighborhoods with targeted outreach to provide immediate housing and services for the homeless population of Hollywood and West Hollywood. The 4rd Annual Hollywood event will begin with Project Y!MBY Connect Day on Thursday, June 25th (8am- 4pm) at the Music Box Fonda Theatre, located at 6126 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood, CA, 90028.

Like a social service “expo,” YIMBY Connect Day will gather more than 60 local public and private service providers and more than 250 volunteers for one day of intensive outreach and engagement services. People who are homeless will gain access to everything from haircuts and foot care to medical examinations, counseling and housing services from across the greater Hollywood area. The event drew an estimated 500 homeless individuals in 2008, and is expected to reach more than 800 homeless this year. The increased number of homeless individuals expected this year is due in part to the recession.

"The struggling economy has had a staggering effect in almost every community across Los Angeles County,” said Joel John Roberts, CEO of PATH Partners. “Early indications predict we will see many new faces, including those who may not be living on the streets but rather on the edge of homelessness.”

Local government officials will kick-off the event, announcing a new campaign to partner with local landlords in Hollywood. The campaign is expected to educate landlords about the many benefits of renting to homeless individuals while helping the community reduce the number of people living on the streets.

For info here: www.epath.org/yimby

Are Panhandlers Really Earning $40 Million Per Year In Miami?

The Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust recently released survey results claiming that South Floridians are giving out $40 million per year to homeless people who are panhandling in the region. Yes, that’s correct… $40 million.

Of course, advocates are claiming this is an inaccurate overly inflated number. As if panhandlers are becoming millionaires off of good intended folks in Miami.

So why would this dollar number be publicly announced?

Like many cities across the country, local officials want to steer small street donations away from panhandlers and into programs that help people get into housing. The city of Denver has the “parking meter” program, where people donate small change into parking meters that then go toward funding bona-fide homeless service and housing agencies.

Miami-Dade County is trying to promote a similar initiative. Encourage residents and tourists to donate their change toward effective programs, not to people panhandling on the streets.

The intention is good. Panhandling should not be a solution to addressing homelessness. If people want to give money toward resolving homelessness, they should donate to programs that actually help people get off the streets.

But to reinforce a stereotype that homeless people are getting rich off of panhandling is not appropriate.


(Pic from www.artsjournal.com)

Joint Local Community Initiatives Are Key To Ending Homelessness

Former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tip O’Neill, is known for saying, “All politics is local.” The same is true about addressing homelessness. “All solutions to homelessness is local.”

National, state, and regional homeless plans are certainly essential to addressing homelessness. But without the support and engagement of local communities, such plans are moot.

Why? Because we all know the solution to homelessness is housing, job creation, healthcare, strategic outreach, better discharge planning, and a strong social safety net. These solutions can only be implemented in local communities.

These communities need to say, “Yes! In My Back Yard,” for these plans to work. Otherwise, well thought through plans sit on the shelf.

Some communities in Los Angeles County are already engaging local community initiatives—Hollywood, West Hollywood, Santa Monica, and Long Beach.

Today, Long Beach is having another local community meeting to prepare for their first community engagement activity—a survey of the homeless population within the central core of the city. This is not a homeless count. It is an intensive survey that evaluates the state of a person living on the streets—how long have they been on the streets, what is their state of health and mind, etc.

Such a survey, will help the community design targeted housing and service programs for each person.

Over 100 community volunteers will be participating in the survey. Nearly every central Long Beach leader or group is participating in this initiative—from businesses to faith groups, law enforcement to emergency services, homeless agencies to housing developers.

Everyone knows that addressing homelessness on a local level is a win-win endeavor.

For more information on the Long Beach initiative, read the following article.

Poverty Is Painful—Literally…

Newsweek Magazine is highlighting a recent study that shows people who lack money experience worsening physical pain.

Here is the start of the article:

“A new wave of newly minted college grads are hoping to enter the workforce this summer, and their prospects aren't looking good. The recession is taking a toll, and many of these young people may be leaving the comfortable cocoon of campus life to face a doubly painful reality of job rejection and financial hardship.

“Their pain is not just metaphorical. Psychologists have been studying the connections between social and economic suffering, and an emerging theory suggests that these experiences are intertwined. What's more, the sting of rejection and the pain of poverty may be further linked to the body's physical pain perceptions. Which means we may literally ache for money and just as literally feel the sting of poverty.”


The article highlights the “pain” of college graduates who are unable to find a job. Frankly, I don’t consider that poverty.

For those of us who are on the front lines of addressing America’s poverty, we see extreme poverty first hand. And, yes, poverty is painful. Not just humiliating, but physically painful. There is the threat of being beaten up on the streets. The risk of getting sick. In fact, poverty could kill you. It doesn’t take a fancy study to reveal that.


(Pic from http://wingnutsunited.files.wordpress.com)

Homelessness Has Gone Virtual

I am not a player of SIMS, the strategic life simulation video game that has sold over 100 million copies. So a co-worker had to explain it to me. The game basically allows you to create your own fantasy world—what you look like, what kind of house you live in, what kind of neighborhood, type of job, etc. It’s all virtual, not real.

Reality, however, has intruded this virtual game. The makers of SIM have introduced a homeless father and daughter into the virtual world.

Here is what the developer of these characters said about his creations:

Burkinshaw: My intention was never to make a comment on real-life society to others, but maybe part of it was to explore that situation for myself. The Sims series is often described as a virtual dollhouse, as it's a medium for some quite sophisticated role play. It does let you act out or explore social situations in much the way that a child will play, use pretend play in order to better understand the adult world.

I would disagree that playing as a homeless person, or with a dysfunctional family isn't any fun. When you play these games in the optimum way to make your sim as successful as possible, it can quickly become boring as you eliminate all conflict and struggle from your digital character's life, and the underlying rules of the simulation begin to show. By starting a character in the worst possible situation I could imagine, I have pretty much ensured that my game will always be interesting and dramatic, even if it's not happy. And if I do manage to drag Alice out of poverty, I can imagine it's going to feel pretty good.

My take: if this allows people in the real world to understand the struggles of homelessness, it’s good. But if it is simply a component of entertainment for people bored with their reality, it’s sick.

Welfare Policies Increase Homelessness In Los Angeles

The L.A. County welfare commission is finally acknowledging that L.A.’s general relief program contributes to keeping people ON the streets. Why? The county’s monthly general relief check is a mere $221.

The cheapest apartment in the county is about $400 per month. So the GR check can’t cover rent. Interpretation: we will give you money for food and incidentals, but we won’t give you enough money to get off the streets.

It has been 13 years since the last increase in monthly subsidies. And yet the cost of living has increased 42 percent.

It doesn’t make sense to me. Millions and millions of dollars are spent each year to operate shelters, provide healthcare, and support food pantries. But a simple step could prevent more people from becoming homeless—provide people sufficient means to get off the streets.

Granted, the California Governor is proposing to cut off the welfare-to-work program (CalWORKS) that will leave 380,000 people in the county without benefits, but that shouldn’t stop the county from doing what’s morally correct.

Raise the general relief allocations and less people will be on the streets. It’s a simple formula.


(Pic from www.co.kern.ca.us)

Are Nonprofit Executives Paid Too Much?

Front page in today's Times is a story of a local nonprofit service agency—albeit large agency—that pays its executives over $400,000 per year plus significant benefits. Clearly, it is a timely story given all of the hoopla over for-profit companies paying its executives millions of dollars per year while also receiving government bailouts.

The angle here is “nonprofit.” The typical worldview of nonprofits is that all staff should be paid poorly—because they should be doing these jobs out of compassion rather than financial gain. A friend of mine, Dan Pallotta, wrote a book called, “Uncharitable,” with a thesis that nonprofits should basically operate like their for-profit counterparts.

So the question is this... how much money should nonprofit agencies pay its executive staff?

Here is my dilemma...my experience in running a nonprofit agency for the last 13 years while hiring hundreds of nonprofit employees, is that you get what you pay for. You offer low paying salaries and the people who apply possess qualifications and experience that match that pay grade.

On the other hand, if you hire a highly qualified person who accepts a low paying salary, out of compassion, the person sometimes works as if he is a volunteer rather than a well-paid staff.

Granted, there are exceptions. Those are the staff I try to keep. But the nonprofit world is just as competitive as the for-profit world. So when you find very good senior staff, other agencies try to hire them away offering more money. I've learned that the hard way.

But high paid executives will also deter donors from giving. They don't want their donations to go toward high salaries. It makes sense. I'm guessing the agency highlighted on the front page of the paper today is going to lose significant revenue given the news of their executive salaries.

There has to be some sort of ceiling for executive salaries. Perhaps a percentage of their for-profit counterparts? How about 25% of the salary of a CEO of a similar sized for-profit company? (But I'm guessing that is already happening.)

In my case, our senior executives have already not accepted pay increases for the last three years. Partly, because of the economy and partly because of pay equity within the agency. In the past 13 years, pay increases have occurred every few years rather than every year. But I’m always worried about all of those headhunters who call our office regularly trying to steal them away.

So how do I try to keep talented executives who are not getting standard pay raises every year? I try by giving them more vacation days and giving them flexible hours to work at home close to their families. It doesn’t always work, but it helps.

But let me be clear... I lean toward Pallotta's perspective of nonprofit management. A hurting, hungry, and homeless world needs highly professional, creative, hardworking, cutting-edge visionaries to find solutions and implement extraordinary programs.

Frankly, you're not going to find these visionaries with annual salaries of $50,000.


(Pic from http://www.welt.de/)

Out Of Time Budget Means Smart Cuts

The Los Angeles Times got it right. California is out of time. They need to cut out $24 billion from the state budget or they go bankrupt.

The Governor is pissing off everyone. He is cutting out a few billion here and a few billion there. Sorry college students. Too bad teachers. Oh well sick children. You lose people in need of public assistance.

The world’s eighth-largest economy is going broke. Unless the state leaders decide to raise taxes. Or they make dramatic cuts.

So everything is on the table.

The Times perspective on cutting the budget… “Cut health and human services last.”

“…not just for humanitarian reasons but because these cuts more than others simply produce paper savings while multiplying costs, transferring them to counties and worsening outcomes. For example, a person who loses Medi-Cal and can't go to the doctor's office will delay treatment until he or she must go to the emergency room, where costs are higher and chances of recovery lower.

“A family that loses CalWorks welfare-to-work aid, training and job placement will turn to county general relief, which pays for about two weeks of rent each month; the family becomes homeless, and the costs return in jails, mental healthcare, drug addiction and hospitals. When health and human services funding remains intact, it brings with it federal matching funds. Cutting a dollar in state services eliminates $2 to $10 in funding.”

Smart perspective. I wonder if our Sacramento leaders will listen?


(Pic from http://plus.maths.org)

There’s No Place Like Home: Even In Rural Kansas

Homelessness. Say that word at a cocktail party or at the office water cooler and most people have images of single men, wearing filthy ragged jackets, wreaking of alcohol in some urban street scene.

The stereotypical image of homelessness, however, is false if you look at the demographics and the geography. Families are one of the fastest growing segments of the homeless population, and you don’t just find them in the big city.

A recent study shows that the “hidden homeless” are also nestled within the rural regions of America. The Maine State Housing Authority released a study called, “The Cost of Rural Homelessness.” Like studies that show how expensive urban homelessness is for cities, this reflects the same thesis… If you leave a person on a street, or living in a rural backcountry, the cost to society is still high—emergency services, law enforcement, health care, etc.

About 9 percent of the homeless population in America live in rural areas. They just are not as visible as their urban counterparts. And there are less services and housing options for rural folks.

Solving rural homelessness, however, is tangible. Because there just are not as many. Sometimes only a dozen or so in a region. Communities can provide solutions—employment, housing, services. So much easier than figuring out what to do with 70,000 homeless in Los Angeles.

Perhaps rural America can lead the way in showing big city folks how to resolve homelessness?

What Does It Mean When $1 of every $6 of Americans’ Income Is From Public Benefits?

Is it too harsh to render America a Welfare State? The facts sure lean toward such a declaration. Public benefits, like food stamps, unemployment insurance, social security, and health care account for 16.2% of personal income.

If you interpret this in dollars, it would mean every household in America would receive on average $17,000 in government assistance if you divided it evenly, or $2 trillion in government support in 2009.

Advocates would say that this government-funded social safety net is working. Is it? Tent cities are propping up across the nation. Unemployment and lack of health insurance is growing. Foreclosures and evictions are spreading.

The system to address homelessness is broken. A new paradigm of housing the most chronic homeless provides hope. But with cities, counties, and states possessing nearly bankrupt budgets, very few new money allocations are being invested in this new housing paradigm.

Sure, the federal government is borrowing billions of dollars to stimulate the economy. It is an investment in homeless prevention and employment. An investment to hopefully jump-start this failing economy. Is it enough? And is it really geared toward changing the way this country addresses homelessness?

Should the government become its citizens’ co-dependent parent that continues to support its adult children incessantly for the rest of their lives? Or should it be looking at the root causes of why its citizens are hungry, unemployed, homeless, and in need of cash benefits and subsidized health care?

A welfare mentality is a bandaid—you don’t keep covering wounds with bandaids for the rest of your life. Of course, public assistance is needed to help the most needy citizens in our country.

But in order for this country to proactively help its citizens become self-sufficient, it needs to invest in a housing infrastructure that allows people to live under a roof instead of under a bridge, a social safety net that temporarily helps people rather than encourages people to be dependent on government assistance, and endows an economy that provides livable wages rather than minimum wage that creates a whole class of working poor.

Is that too much to ask for?


(Pic from www.socialistunity.com)