Most of us ignore the homeless and most of them are suffering. Covid has made it worse. Half a million people in the US are homeless today. Here are their statistics at any moment in time:
- 11% are veterans
- 12% are families (most of which are children)
- 10% are fleeing domestic violence
- 20% are mentally ill
- 44% have a disability
- 16% are drug abusers
- 9% have been in jail
But the momentary statistics don’t tell the whole story. For example, although 12% of the homeless at a point in time are families, people go in and out of homelessness, so over a year’s time 2.5 million children are homeless for some period of time. That is 1 in 30 children. About 3 million people experience homelessness at some point in the year annually. About 25% of the homeless are chronically so, meaning they have been homeless for over a year or four times off and on. HUD estimates that it costs $60,000/yr to house a homeless family, yet many families who are not homeless live on less than half that. Something is wrong.
Most of these people don’t want to be homeless but circumstances led them there. It is easy to understand how veterans, families, the mentally ill, and the disabled just had a bad break, lost jobs, got lost in the rat race, couldn’t get hired, couldn’t make rent or the security deposit, and just ended up on the street. The same goes even for many who have been in jail. And drug abusers, usually the lowest on the sympathy scale, are sick and helpless.
So what to do about it? In Manchester, New Hampshire this fall, the state demanded that homeless people encamped on court property vacate the premises and the police sliced up their tents to reinforce the point. The state offered no alternative for these people while local government, with shelters already full, struggled to find a solution. New Hampshire has about 1,400 homeless people on any given day – 200 families, 120 veterans, and 85 unaccompanied young adults, among others. At a generous $20,000/yr per person (the US poverty line for a family of 4 is $26,000/yr), it would cost the state $28 million/yr to deal with the issue with a combination of shelters and efforts to re-home/job. This is 0.5% of the state’s budget. In reality, homeless services are paid for by both state and private funds.
While the solution to homelessness is a difficult multidimensional one, we need some innovative, emergency solutions just to get people out of the cold (700 homeless people die per year of hypothermia). While Covid has made the problem worse, it also offers some new opportunities. For example, there are many empty office buildings and malls due to Covid. Could any of those, or portions, be converted to shelters? Give tax breaks to owners wanting to dump their now “useless” properties. Could the rich-poor divide be exploited? Create a mechanism by which it would be easy, and tax deductible, for a millionaire to rent an apartment for a homeless family. One of the problems with dealing with homelessness is that the solutions are so diverse. States have programs but the problem is viewed as a local one. Local governments have programs, but so do NGOs. Is there a way to consolidate, while avoiding bureaucratic baggage, to make it more effective?
Once everyone is indoors, if you can get them there (many homeless do not like shelters for many good reasons), solving the multidimensional issues causing homelessness is a more difficult issue. The job-capable need help finding a job and organizing their lives. The disabled need even more help. The mentally ill need different kinds of help in a society that also ignores this issue. Those having given up hope need convincing there is hope and then need the other help. Best of all, however, some need just a little nudge of help to get back on their feet which they desperately want. Give them each the help they need.