Last week, I happened upon a column by Liz Jones of the London Daily Mail. The title alone - "There I stood, homeless with my Prada case" - was appalling, and ended up being more tolerable than most of the rest of her column (of which the full text can be found on this link).
Suffice to say, Ms. Jones ended up looking really bad; her attempt to connect with the concept of homelessness fell apart when considering her own version of "out on the streets" was due to maxing out her credit cards and being denied a stay in a posh hotel. It's hard to feel empathy for someone who so poorly succeeds at manufacturing personal hardship.
But it doesn't mean the problem doesn't exist.
OK, this is a tough one for me, because I realize many of the "homeless" I see traveling to and from work, to and from my parent's winter residence in Boca Raton, to and from ... basically, any place I travel these days ... are probably "homeless" for reasons beyond their control. After all, these days, many of us seem to be living one paycheck away from this very situation, and it's uncomfortable enough facing that reality daily (although, to be honest, how many of us actually face this realistically?). Today, "job" stands for "just over broke" even more than it did when I first heard the phrase in the late 1980s. The problem - which has been around for years - has increased dramatically the past few years, thanks in part to the stunning increase in foreclosures - and the stunning increase in joblessness - as part of the financial meltdown we have experienced.
But these have only led to an increase in the problem. It's not like there was no such thing as homelessness in the United States during the boon times. According to various studies, poverty ranks as the primary reason people are homeless. This makes sense. With wages not keeping up with inflation, and with limited options for affordable and/or safe housing in some markets, even gainfully employed people find it difficult to keep up with mortgage or rent payments.
Additionally, individuals who suffer from substance abuse, mental illness or physical illness, make up a large percentage of the homeless population. For example, developmental disorders such as ADD, ADHD, Asperger's, autism, and dyslexia, which interfere with a person's ability to interact with others, can result in homelessness if that person does not have an adequate family support structure.
And that leads to what I believe is one of the real major reasons for homelessness - a reason that no one seems to talk about, because we're too busy either ignoring the problem or blaming government or keeping the window rolled up tighter than grandma's knitting and (metaphorically) plugging our noses when we approach an intersection with panhandlers holding Sharpie-designed cardboard box sides.
In a country the size and wealth of the United States, to have one homeless person is a crime; to have an estimated 7 million is ... infinitely beyond criminal. And the saddest thing is, they are homeless in large part because they don't have a fallback in place, either because it never existed or it was abused.
I've never been homeless, but I've been jobless and seemingly as close to homeless as it can get. It ain't fun. But one reason I really wasn't in as dire straits as others was that I had family there to fall back on, if need be. And if that failed, I had a strong network of friends on which to rely.
For many homeless individuals, no such options exist, or - it stands to reason - they wouldn't be homeless. They would have, at least temporarily, a roof over their heads, and while they may not "own" or "rent" a home, at least they have some form of shelter. But in our society, crowded houses lead to complications, because we "need out space" and too many bodies restricts this option. Or the hosts are taken advantage of in some way, shape or form, leading to a falling out (and eventually eviction of the individuals they were assisting).
So what do we do? Many of us are on a tight budget. We worry that the spare change we offer will go to alcohol, tobacco, various other drugs, even though logic dictates it would go toward food for the moment. What are our short-term options, understanding the long-term solution includes finding these individuals jobs and affordable housing? According to Boake Moore, an IT sales engineer by trade who founded a non-profit coffee company called Mission Grounds Gourmet Coffee (which donates all its profits and proceeds to helping orphans and impoverished children, and helping homeless children in the United States), you can do the following:
- Instead of giving money to panhandlers, donate money to shelters that take care of them. Too often, sadly, well-intended gifts are converted to drugs or alcohol - even when the "hard luck" stories they tell are true.
- If the person is hungry, buy them a sandwich and a beverage. And sit and talk with them. Taking time to talk to a homeless person in a friendly, respectful manner can give them a wonderful sense of civility and dignity. And besides being just neighborly, it gives the person a weapon to fight the isolation, depression and paranoia that many homeless people face.
- Their immediate needs are the basics - food, clothes, and shoes. So bring food to homeless shelters. Get with local grocers and ask if you can have the daily leftovers and date-expired food; take these to the shelter. (If you like set up a weekly trip and take them enough food every week, now you are making a big difference.)
- Bring extra shoes, coats and clothes to the shelter. Have a clothes drive in your neighborhood, Do it on a monthly basis, if you like; the homeless residents next month are most likely not the homeless residents who were there this month.
Too often, we only seemingly concentrate any attempts to assist the homeless during the holidays, in part because it's cold and snowy (in areas where cold and snowy are winter conditions), and in part because it's the "season of giving." But homelessness has no calendars; it follows no preordained schedule; it does not pause when the sun comes out. Along with many other negative aspects of our world, let's work to wipe "homelessness" from our lexicon ... one person at a time.
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