Homelessness

Homelessness

President Reagan believed that "the homeless are on the streets by choice and prefer this to the available shelters...and that the jobless are simply not motivated." (Ronald W, 1) In our great nation of awesome power and abundant resources the number of homeless population is increasing every year. Our government is not doing all that it can to put in effect the necessary tools to combat or more importantly to prevent our nation's homelessness. Instead our government is focusing on individual necessities of those who become homeless, and continuously provides them with material and monetary assistance. It is this belief that has helped to increase the homelessness of our nation, and it is this belief that will continue to do so if our government does not take a closer and more realistic look at the grounds behind homeless population in our country.

During the Reagan Administration, homelessness was viewed as a problem that did not require federal intervention. In 1983, the first federal task force on homelessness was created to provide information to local communities on how to obtain surplus federal property. However, the task force did not address homelessness through policy actions. (Blau, 109-132) In the following years, advocates around the nation demanded that the federal government acknowledge homelessness as a national problem requiring a national response. As a result, in 1986, the Homeless Persons' Survival Act was introduced in both houses. The act contained emergency relief measures, preventive measures, and long-term solutions to homelessness. However, only small pieces of this proposal were enacted into law. The first, the Homeless Eligibility Clarification Act of 1986, (Hombs, 67) removed permanent address requirements and other barriers to existing programs such as Supplemental Security Income, Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Veterans Benefits, Food Stamps, and Medicaid. Also in 1986, the Homeless Housing Act was adopted. (Hombs, 67) This legislation created the Emergency Shelter Grant program and a transitional housing program, which were administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development or HUD. (Blau, 16)

In late 1986, legislation containing Title I of the Homeless Persons' Survival Act, emergency relief provisions for food, shelter, mobilized health care, and transitional housing, was introduced as the Urgent Relief for the Homeless Act. (Hombs, 70-89) After an intensive campaign, large bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress passed the legislation in 1987. After the death of its sponsor, Stewart B.McKinney, the act was re-named the 1987 Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act. The reluctant President Ronald Reagan signed it into law, on July 22, 1987. The 1987 Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act was the first, and only, major federal legislative response to homelessness. (Blau, 112-114)

The McKinney Act originally consisted of fifteen programs that provided a range of services to the homeless. The services included job training, education, emergency shelter, transitional housing, primary health care, and a limited amount of permanent housing. The McKinney Act has been amended numerous times, with the 1990 amendments including the Shelter Plus Care program, which provided housing assistance to the homeless with disabilities, mental illness, AIDS, and drug/alcohol addictions, and a program within the Health Care for the Homeless to provide primary health care and outreach to at-risk homeless children. (Levy, 360-368) Also in 1990, the Community Mental Health Services program was amended and re-named as: the Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness (PATH) program. The 1990 amendments more clearly outlined the obligations of states and local educational agencies in assuring public education of homeless children and youth. (Kryder-Coe, 81-85)

Unfortunately, even with the passage of the McKinney Act, and the amendments to it, the causes of homelessness have not been adequately addressed. The 1994 goal of the Interagency Council on the Homeless was "to achieve the goal of 'a decent home and a suitable living environment' for every American." ( Hombs, 131-132) The President called for increasing housing subsidies and repairing the "damage caused by the misguided and harmful housing budget cuts of the 1980s." (Hombs, 132) However, the President's fiscal year 96, 97, and 98 budgets maintained the cuts to housing programs made by Congress. Thus, Congress left in place a number of measures which reduced the unfortunate access to housing, such as tightened eligibility standards for public housing, cuts to federal aid to poor children, (Foscarinis, par. 5-8) and cuts in subsidized low-rent housing.

New policies that address the causes of homelessness, by addressing housing, education, income and treatment problems, must align with prevention policies to stop the rise in homelessness. When President Clinton was first elected, it appeared that he had a plan to make homelessness the number one HUD priority and to introduce innovative reforms to make a real change to the nation's homelessness. Eight years later, no legislation has been passed in this area. So what can our government do? They must make the McKinney Act work for us: provide flexible resources to develop local programs; programs that prove success should be allowed to grow into the mainstream system, receiving support outside of McKinney; programs that provide emergency services should form a core of a local emergency services system and be supported and maintained; affordable housing programs should be revamped in recognition of the current housing crisis;Don't expect McKinney/HUD resources to meet all needs among people not housed. Require other systems to provide support services. (Homelessness in America)

The society has a stereotype view about causation of homelessness which include low income jobs, expensive/bad housing conditions, social service system failures like health and mental health, no committed responsibility for the chronically disabled, domestic violence/prisons/military/foster care system discharges. In rational many of the homeless people have not completed high school, and lack of education has put then in that situation. Some have completed colleges but they have untreatable drug addictions. Homeless people can be helped to return to lives of promise. The physical, mental, emotional and spiritual needs of the homeless must be addressed if they are to recover from homelessness. The work of homeless advocates to improve availability of affordable housing, adequate education and increased wages is certainly beneficial to this population. However, the real issue is how long the homeless problem would be solved if the person were unable to