Homelessness

With over 700,000 American citizens sleeping on hard plastic benches and making homes out of cardboard boxes in alleyways, it is incredibly difficult to think that the government is doing its share regarding our country's homelessness. The nation first addressed the problem of homelessness with the Housing Act of 1949. This act forced America to provide a modest home and a proper living environment for each citizen. Clearly, this legislation failed due to the vast number of people living in shelters across the country today. (Barbieri)

According to the McKinney act a homeless person is someone who is without a night time residence, someone in a homeless shelter, someone living in an area not created for lodging, or institutionalized. Passed in July 1987, the act authorized funding for approximately twenty federal programs that would meet the needs of the homeless. During this time, over $500 million of the annual funds went to the Department of Housing and Urban Development though the McKinney Act. (Barbieri)

Furthermore, The McKinney Act argued for three existing programs, The Emergency Shelter Grants Program, the Federal Emergency Management Agency Emergency Food and Shelter Program, and The Supportive Housing Demonstrative Program. The Emergency Shelter Grants Program was designed to help relieve the nation's shortage of shelter capacity. The Federal Emergency Management Agency Emergency Food and Shelter Program disburse funds for food and rental assistance. The Supportive Housing Demonstrative Program provides resources to return the homeless to independent living and supply permanent housing for the mentally. In addition, The McKinney Act created two new programs. The Supplemental Assistance for Facilities that Assist the Homeless was created to provide comprehensive assistance to meet the needs of the homeless. The Section 8 Assistance for Single Room Occupancy Dwellings was made to encourage renovations of single room occupancy units. (Walker)

As stated by the National Coalition for the Homeless (NHC), in the spring of 1989 The McKinney Homeless Assistance Act was "a welcomed first step in the fight against homelessness, it [was however] not the whole solution" (Keyes). Today, the McKinney-Vento Act is not the whole solution. From the time the McKinney-Vento Act passed in 1987 the act's programs have developed and rose funding significantly. The programs have suffered though, in the past few years, and now are up against new trials as the issue continues unabated throughout the United States. (NCH)

For instance, when asked, one would typically describe a homeless person as being a "single, jobless white male, often plagued with alcohol related problems" (Barbieri). This statement may have been true in the past, but in today's world only 35% of the homeless population would fit this stereotype. What most people do not know is that 14% of the homeless are single women, 4% are unaccompanied children, 22% are mentally disabled, 40% are families with children, 11% are veterans, and the highest percentage is that of single parents with their children at a shocking 67%. Half of the homeless are African-American, 12% are Hispanic, and 2% are Native American (Newcombe). The number of homeless people is estimated to be about "700,000 living in [a] shelter at night and up to 2 million...experience homelessness during one year" (Newcombe).

The largest number of homeless lives in Los Angeles, a countywide count of 88,000 individuals a night and a staggering 253,918 people a year according to Tepper's research on the homeless population. Los Angeles' city and county officials are now attempting to do away with homelessness countywide with a ten year plan with the help of the public, who were influenced by articles in the newspaper. Zen Yaroslavsky, supervisor of the third district for the County of Los Angeles, gave his authorization to a $100 million plan that would create five centers to endow temporary shelters, thus removing homeless concentrations. (Wood)

Los Angeles is also helped by state funds that are distributed for mental health purposes and will increase federal funding for the homeless by 6.7%. According to the plan $12 billion will be invested over the ten-year period for 50,000 housing units, the amount needed to put a roof over everyone's head in the county. This new plan also decreased the $32 million the county needed to spend on arresting and hospitalizing the homeless annually. Hospitalizing the homeless is almost forty-nine times the cost of supportive housing. It has also been estimated that being hospitalized for a month could cover the cost of twenty months in a support home. (Wood)

The ten year plan, however, is neglecting some crucial facts and will not provide a full solution to the problem. The plan will not provide homeless person's an actual home where they can live independently. Los Angeles forgets that some of the homeless need to reside in a mental hospital because they are unable to live in supportive housing. The mentally disabled homeless are also in need of medications to become mentally stable and the ten year plan does not include that kind of help. Another issue that is not addressed is children. The plan does not include help for parents who are trying to live independently and are in need of childcare. To help resolve this problem, the county of Los Angeles could possibly create daycare programs for homeless children.

Los Angeles is not the only city in California not thinking out their plans fully. San Francisco has recently started a program just for homeless men called "Care Not Cash". The program helps about 300 men receive their own private single occupancy hotel room. Despite the programs' name there is no estimated amount of how much the program will cost so there is no estimated number of how many years San Francisco can keep this program running. The program also fails to help the homeless women and children of San Francisco disregarding the fact that they compose the greatest percentage of homeless persons (Romney).

California has also just recently passed proposition 1C. This proposition will grant homeless families with children shelter and social services. It will create 87,000 jobs and allow the homeless to strengthen California's economy. One of its main focuses is to help the large amount of homeless foster children in California. The down side of Proposition 1C is that it will cost California $3 billion, money that California does not have. It will also not provide help for everyone that needs it.

The second largest homeless population is in New York. The government of New York pays an average of $2,400 per person to keep the homeless in shelters in Brooklyn. This money could pay for a comfortable living in an apartment in the outer