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What's the real issue that causes homelessness in America?

Humanlove 7 Apr 5
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0

The truth is that the rich in this country have manipulated the laws for their bennefit. If you and your rich buddies own 50,000 apartments and own 500 fast food resturants - then you need people. With excess people your apartments are rented and prices go up. Your fast food places have employees, wages stay down. The rich donate to politicians that will fight against border security so there will be an excess of people - hence high rent, low wages, and homeless people.

gater Level 7 Apr 5, 2018

I somehow don't buy this narrative of jobs going to migrants,actually many immigrants established businesses.

@0752532706 Talk to a carpenter

@gater There are many jobs that go unfilled because there is a shortage of qualified applicants.

10

Well talking from my experience
I am profesional fully qualifed top tile person
I lost everything after my divorce of 25 years my family, my girls my dog and all my assets.
on top of that i lost my job made redudant on top of that i lost my mum who was a rock to me.
Point of despair, mentaly, physically, emotonially drained i was nearly homeless if not of my brother who took me straight away and looked after me.

Is not everyone's cup of tea for being homeless- circumstance make some of them and other well i cannot comment.
So i look at each person on its own and go to the root of thier problem rahter than labelling everyone

it takes a lot of time for some one to climb out of an abbyss

I still have not seen my girls now nearly 5 years and i just lost my dog so yeah i journey and experience it and it made me a stronger person and i will move on and i will like to meet someone and share my new journey with that person .

The issues is the issue ?

Rosh Level 7 Apr 5, 2018

Wow, after going through all that misery, you "will like to meet someone and share my new journey with that person" and put yourself right back in the same situation that it can happen again.

9

As someone who has only visited the USA 3 times and looking in from the outside, I would say that

  • the US minimum wage isn't high enough
  • I can't comment on the welfare system but no doubt it plays a role
  • the medical system is clearly a mess as productive people can end up in massive debt due to medical bills
  • services for mental health are insufficient
  • support for veterans - they seem to get discarded the moment they come back from 'serving their country'.

Homelessness exists everywhere but I've seen it increase in both the UK and Oz as they've cut funding for welfare, education, health and support services. Its not rocket science.

There will always be a percentage of the population who find it hard to get by in society, pay bills, keep jobs etc. This is almost always due to mental health issues.

I'd happily have my taxes go towards paying for tiny houses in every town to help house those who struggle with life in order to give them a place to recuperate and perhaps get back on their feet.

7

Lack of a living wage.
Can we fix it? Yes.
Will the government help? No. Why? Homeless people have no permanent address so they are not registered voters for the most part. Politicians care less about people who can't or don't vote.
Most of the homeless are not there by choice but by circumstance.
Some people prefer to be homeless.
Homelessness is a systemic failure of society not doing what is right.
If you think homelessness is that individuals fault and they don't warrent a home then you walk up on stage on live tv in front of a group of 30 kids, pick out 1, and tell them they don't deserve a place to feel safe or warm or have a meal. Will you do it? Call a local tv station and have them record you telling each individual woman in a Womens Shelter that they don't deserve the shelter from abuse, by living at the shelter they ARE homeless you know.

I would apologize for sounding so crass... I'm not apologizing, perhaps crassness and more is needed. This is not an issue about choice, this is an issue about power and can be resolved if those in charge choose to do so.

There isn't anything you said that you should apologize for. I heartily concur with every word.

Here in Florida the voting laws were changed a few years ago in the name of "national security" the effect was to disenfranchise the homeless population who had been making do with shelter addresses. I do not believe for a moment this was accidental.

@KKGator thank you.

7

There is no one issue. I knew someone who went medically bankrupt and was homeless for a while; a person who should have gone to domestic violence services but didn't want to follow the rules - she also had drug and mental health issues; someone who was a crack addict and lived on the streets; a few people who were in the foster care system who escaped to be homeless; lots of people with chronic severe mental health issues like schizophrenia, or bipolar I, or a personality disorder who couldn't maintain med compliance and / or were using street drugs; and, you know, poverty.

I did my therapy internship in community mental health...

6

A really good question.
hmmmm...
Inability to find a home?
Ha!

I have no definitive answer. But i can ramble for a bit. Obviously, our social model could use some work. There needs to be a balance between the orientation of our models emphasis on the product of the individual contributed to society, and the society providing a structure for the individual to thrive, at the least. why stop there? We could imagine a more utopian existence where ecologically beneficial technologies create an environment where it isn't necessary to work so much, or at all.

Education, Mental Health, Availability of Employment, Habitability of the Environment, Bad Decision Making, Addiction, these are things that can factor into the ability to find a home in America. But these things might not be causes of homelessness in models that are designed to either prevent such conditions from arising in the first place, or do a better job of helping people who find themselves suffering such conditions. Hopefully both. There are many social "ills" that seem to be bubbling up at the moment. I can't help but feel they all have some underpinning root, but perhaps that just my desire for things to be "simple" and "easy to understand". Something I can explain away with "common sense" 😉 .

It's hard to put in to words, but there is a "connection" that seems absent or weak at the moment. A sense of rapport between our individual bodies and our social bodies. I like to "step back" sometimes when thinking of these questions... zoom out, until people are particles with charges... bouncing around in various states of energy, interacting, exchanging charges and information. What's going on in the social chemistry? If you, for a moment, pretend you are not yourself... but just observing these objects, with their affinities, gravitations, fields of movement. What patterns do you see? An interesting exercize.

I'd be careful in applying "commonsense" and logic to explain things as it might lead to uncomfortable personal truths for some...🙂

6

There are a lot of mentally ill people who are homeless, as well as people who simply have no support system.

Some places also have a terrible high cost of living and that contributes as well.

25% of homeless people are mentally ill.

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 20 to 25% of the homeless population in the United States suffers from some form of severe mental illness. In comparison, only 6% of Americans are severely mentally ill (National Institute of Mental Health, 2009).

Mental Illness and Homelessness - National Coalition for the Homeless

www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/Mental_Illness.pdf

6

America itself. Or rather, the corruption of the original American idea which exists today. Individual liberty is a concept which much of the world has embraces wholeheartedly. But it's been taken way too far. Countries in Europe understand that individual freedom can't be absolute, if wellbeing for all is to be assured. So, European countries have implemented benefit and support systems, free healthcare, mandatory paid leave etc. The USA has not. 643,000 people in the USA go bankrupt every year due to medical bills, because the healthcare industry is being run as just that; an industry, and not a universal right.

You may be right,but can we put all the blame on Governments? What about on areas where parents fail their children? I mean, if you spoon-feed your child,what do you expect as end results?

@0752532706 Yes, the current generation is a product of the last one. And the USA has never had a wake-up call like Europe has.

5

The causes vary by the individual. Mental illness and economics seem to play the largest roles, imo.

Agreed...mental illness (negative stigma attached to it,) lack of healthcare coverage, inability to work...leads to addiction poverty and homelessness.

@th14401 So many of the denigrations associated with mental illness stem from the fundamental flaw in our economics. Hayek (ok, and von Mises) designed the system to ensure a permanent underclass. This is always going to drive the vulnerable into absolute destitution.
Fix the Chicago/Austrian school crap and we'll have a chance at lifting the bottom SES back to subsistence.At the moment we're pushing against the system.

4

Amazing what one may find on the internet using a search engine. Actual facts, rather than opinions presented as facts. [nlchp.org]

  1. The #1 cause of homelessnes is insufficient income and lack of affordable housing. Not mental illness. Not laziness.

  2. After paying rent and utilities, 75% of ELI (extremely low-income) households end up with less than half of their income left to pay for necessities such as food, medicine, transportation, or childcare.

  3. The foreclosure crisis also played, and continues to play, a significant role in homelessness:
    o In 2008, state and local homeless groups reported a 61% rise in homelessness since the
    foreclosure crisis began.
    o Approximately 40% of families facing eviction due to foreclosure are renters; the problem may continue to worsen as renters represent a rising segment of the U.S. population

  4. For women in particular, domestic violence is a leading cause of homelessness.

  5. Top causes of homelessness among families were:
    (1) lack of affordable housing,
    (2) unemployment
    (3) poverty
    (4) low wages

Top four causes of homelessness among unaccompanied individuals were:
(1) lack of affordable housing
(2) unemployment
(3) poverty
(4) mental illness and the lack of needed services
(5) substance abuse and the lack of needed services

Empty homes outnumber homeless people in the US 6 to 1.
[mintpressnews.com]

The fact that there are 6 empty houses to every homeless person is a disgrace.

In London there are thousands of brand new high end flats and also many big old mansions in affluent areas owned by foreigners for investment purposes but not rented out ...yet a significant shortage of affordable homes.

Developers ‘accidentally’ forget to build the affordable quota that was part of their planning permission but the government doesn’t bother to penalise them.

The system is well and truly broken.

@Elba321 Empty "investment housing" is also increasingly an issue in the US. Ditto for developers. not following through with the affordable quota, at least in New York City.

4

Everything starts at school.

Good point but I think that as far as learning is concerned everything begins at home and is modified or changed by school and from thereon along the road....

@ASTRALMAX I agree with you.

@ASTRALMAX Learning is only a problem when you're learning alternate or biased opinions, much like what is taught in our history classes. The problem isn't learning, it's how it's presented. You are either right or wrong at school and they want you to conform to their opinion. Your learning is dependent upon your teachers who may or may not be competent of the subject they're teaching plus they'll provide you an opportunity to blindly pledge allegiance to a country that consistently has officials who swear under oath to fulfill duties, but regularly can't seem to follow their own rules.

4

There is a plethora of "reasons" about why people are homeless. Some people may have decided that they no longer wish to "play the game". To label people as "mentally ill" because they no longer wish to conform to society's expectations is demonstrate total disrespect for freedom of choice and individual liberty.

Owning a home is something that is desirable for the vast majority of people and it is usually purchased by a loan which can take many years to repay. Some people prefer to rent because it gives them the flexibility to easily move from one place to another.

Anything can happen and many things do happen between signing a contract and the final payment on your apartment or house, marriages breakdown, people lose their jobs for a variety of reasons. Drug addiction, alcoholism and all kinds of other reasons seems to be amongst the most popular reasons given for being homeless by the homeless themselves.

That's not what most of us mean when we say 'mentally ill.'. We mean things like schizophrenia and such, for which help is inaccessible.

Also, one doesn't need to own a home to not be homeless.

4

I really think the same cause in any developed country. Too many people, not enough affordable housing. Then of course the why is there not enough affordable housing? People only invest in anything including housing when the returns justify the investment. So basically the whole economic system is at fault.

4

In my opinion? Conservative pseudo-Xtians. Literally all the other causes, such as insufficient wage, mistreatment of minorities and the mentally ill, etc, can be laid squarely on their doorstep. They either cause it or perpetuate it.

3

Well thats hard to say. So many factors. Saw so many homeless people in Las Vegas of all places. They were camping out on the street in front of Veterans Center and Catholic Charities in tents, tarps, blankets, etc. They were on and off the city buses. The Strip blocks them from downtown by taking away seats at Bus Stops which you have to stand at, otherwise in the North end of the City they camp at bus stops-anywhere storefronts. I never asked anyone why they were homeless. I could smell them on the buses. They carried all their wordly possessions with them. There were veterans with walkers, wheelchairs and prostheses. Some families. I never asked why they were there.

3

Mental healthcare deficiencies

3

Where I live, homelessness is largely a mental health problem.

Typically Mental Health and Human Services are the first things cut when a state runs out of money by funding pro ball stadiums and ball courts.

Further exacerbated by the detrimental effects of homelessness on mental and physical well being.

2

There are homeless people all over the world, why single this out to just one country?

Feel free to start a new discussion on homelessness in the rest of the world

@ailurophile I was asking the person who posted this. Now, since you are now asking me...I don't want/care for a rest of the world analysis and yet, my question is still valid.

2

Ultimately the largest contributor is neo-liberal (AKA trickle down) economics.

"Trickle-down" economics has always been employed during republican administrations. Not sure why you would label it as "neo-liberal".

@KKGator 'neo-liberal' is what its own proponents call it, possibly in an attempt to make it look better than it actually is.

Trickle down is a Republican fantasy

@KKGator I call it neo-liberal because that is it's formal title. Outside the USA "liberal" does not mean progressive. It may, but there are also conservative, AKA classical, liberals whose ideals fit well with the left leaning members of the GOP.
This is why I do not consider most of the "conservative" movements of the world to be either conservative or classically liberal (hence the neo- in the system's title). They're either radical populist nationalists (we had enough of them in the mid 20th C) or Tories aiming for a new aristocracy.

@jonds56 Not just Republicans. Maggie Thatcher used it very effectively to reengineer British society.

@KBJ41 Beautifully put. I should have read this before posting.

@KBJ41 Yep. I have regular arguments with Australians over the relative position of respective governments. The two systems put all but the right of our conservatives to the left of Obama. Sanders would be slightly right of center with "wet" economic policy here.
Mind you, said right wing "conservatives" are getting VERY right wing and our left has taken a lurch to the right for much the same reasons as did the Dems.

2

Incompetence, in every conceivable way.

I'm not sure I understand how homelessness equates to incompetence...in any way.

@SheThatB So many advantages born and raised in this country, and yet, living in a tent. There are very few ways in which this can happen. To fall through so many cracks to end up there is total incompetence.

@GlyndonD We will have to agree to disagree.

@SheThatB Works for me, except that you most likely believe that government has the right to force me to help these people, and any other charity the government has determined I must help with.

1

I have known some homeless who actually chose to be. I think it must be a minority, but some actually chose that lifestyle. For some of those, a mental illness component may have come into play, but not all.

I used to live in an area that had a resident homeless lady. We called her the Purple Lady because she only wore purple. She walked around the city with a shepherd's crook. She was taken from the streets multiple times but always went back. When she died it was discovered that she had hundreds of thousands of dollars. She just chose the street life for whatever reason. **Edit: I forgot to add that her purple clothes were always long flowing gowns and they were always clean and looked new.

1

Lack of rent money?

0

Well, if you have to pick on, I'd say that the fact that economic factors are it. Just look at the distribution of wealth in the US.

And not having a place to live, obviously.

0

Crystal Meth Amphetamine...

0

Judgement, and fear of judgement.

0

A lack of social consciousness. We say we care and Americans give a lot to charities but the political will to resolve this problem is not there. No easy fix however. Even with lots of shelters in a nearby city, some homeless prefer the street.

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