This week’s reading stirred up many different emotions regarding homelessness here in America. I do believe that this is the best country in the world to live in but I do feel guilty saying that knowing that we have a serious problem with homelessness in America. It is shameful that the richest country in the world cannot come up with a better way of dealing with such an enormous problem. From reading the responses posted on the forum I got the impression that most everyone thinks of homeless people as old, dirty, toothless, individuals who have made bad decisions in their lives to get to this point. The truth is, many of our homeless are children, and of those children almost 42 percent are under the age of six. This to me is the saddest part of the entire problem. It is easier to dismiss the issue of homeless when we think of the type of people described above, but when it is children who have no control over their situation it becomes harder to turn your head. There are over one million homeless children in America; how does this happen? There are many other “poorer” countries that have a smaller percentage of children amongst their homeless. If other countries that are not as wealthy as us can do a better job with their homeless than why can’t we? It seems like there needs to be a natural disaster before this country does anything to help the underserved and even then it isn’t enough. I feel partly responsible because like most other Americans I do next to nothing to help the cause at all.
The worst thing about our homeless, especially homeless children is the fact that it would cost less money to help prevent homeless than it does dealing with it once it has become a problem. It has been said that one dollar to prevent homelessness will save three dollars in healthcare costs and other programs that are funded by taxes. Homeless children get sick twice as often as other children; twice as many ear infections, four times as many asthma attacks, five times more stomach problems, six times as many speech problems, and twice as many hospitalizations. This adds up. More money spent trying to help these children than would have been needed to prevent their unfortunate situations. These are just physical problems that homeless children face, not to mention the psychological problems these children develop.
There are many contributing factors that lead to such a high rate of homelessness in this country. Mainly housing is just not affordable to most low income families. Housing rates have continued to increase. In forty of the fifty states two full time minimum wage workers working forty ours a week, fifty two ours a year, could not afford a two bedroom home at fair market rates. With homelessness on the rise, year after year coupled with a decline in affordable homes results in a compounding homeless problem. I didn’t write this week’s blog to make anyone feel bad, although I have made myself feel that way; I wrote it just to inform people that much of the homeless population is comprised of children who cannot help their situations.