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Homelessness is a growing problem in the United States that does not get nearly enough attention in the halls of government. When it is talked about by lawmakers, they talk about it from the perspective of a person who has never experienced it. They meet and discuss what they think homeless people need without ever talking to homeless people about it. The meager laws that do get passed to assist homeless persons usually reflect a woeful lack of knowledge and understanding of the scope of homelessness, and an attitude of blame towards the homeless person. In Washington State, we advocate and fight to keep our safety-net programs from being cut out of the budget every legislative session.
There are lawmakers who fight tooth-and-nail to get rid of programs that help single mothers feed their families or for homeless persons to get food stamps. They seem to think if you take away a mothers' help from the government, she will get off her lazy butt and take initiative on her own to feed her family, or if you stop building affordable and low-income housing, homeless people will somehow find a way to pay market-rate housing when they couldn't even afford to get off the streets in the first place. The arguments they make during the legislative session makes sense to them because the do not have a clue what is really going on with poverty and homelessness. Even the lawmakers that are on the side of homeless people don't know what it is like to be homeless or poor, but at least they are willing to be educated by advocates.
This must change. But the only way it will is to educate our lawmakers and give them a clear picture of what it means to be homeless. The challenges homeless people endure are almost impossible to overcome alone. The longer a person remains homeless, the harder it is to not be homeless. One would think that the longer a person works to get out of the mire of living on the streets, the better their chances are of finding a place to live, but believe it or not, just the opposite is true. This is because the psychological effects of long-term homelessness become more severe the longer the experience lasts.
Homeless people are not any different than the rest of us. Homelessness causes trauma, and trauma is debilitating. Demanding that a homeless person pull themselves up by their own bootstraps is tantamount to asking a sprinter to run a marathon. Being homeless is hard work, and even harder when the challenges are not only internal, but external as well. Here I speak of the myriad of social and human service programs in Washington State that have failed to come up with any kind of effective system to help homeless persons get off the street.
I have spoken to a lot of homeless people, and one thing that has become painfully obvious to me is that homeless people experience a sort of a domino effect in their lives that begins with the loss of self-esteem, and ends in an almost complete hopelessness and lack of the ability to create a sustained mindset of clear thinking that is needed to get off the street. It is almost impossible to "plan" your way out of homelessness when all that is on your mind is finding food during the day, and finding a safe place to sleep every night. On top of that, if it is cold you might actually die from exposure if you don't find a place to sleep that is inside.
According to the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, who conducts the annual One Night Count of homeless persons, there are 3,265 people living in transitional housing, 2,906 persons living in homeless shelters, and 3,772 persons living on the street. This is a 21% increase from last year. Moreover, this statistics stands out in stark relief amidst the lauded 10 year plan to end homelessness in King County as we are in the 10th year of the plan.
To say as it bluntly as I can, the government has utterly and completely failed to help homeless persons in the last 10 years. Programs that are designed to provide better assistance to the poor and homeless in Washington State have been drastically cut, other programs to help end homelessness have been done away with altogether. This kind of behavior from our lawmakers tends to make me doubt that there was ever any real commitment to end homelessness at all. What makes this whole situation particularly distressing is that while politicians praise their failed 10 year plan, homeless people have been literally dying in alleys and under bridges each winter for the last 10 years.
So, it is now as it always has been in this country, any help for the poor and homeless must come in the form of a real and sustained grass-roots effort like the 99% movement. If we don't stand up for ourselves we will continue to be ignored by our government. Unfortunately for the homeless, the stakes not only involve income inequality, but literally life and death.
Stand up, and speak truth to power!
Homelessness is a growing problem in the United States that does not get nearly enough attention in the halls of government. When it is talked about by lawmakers, they talk about it from the perspective of a person who has never experienced it. They meet and discuss what they think homeless people need without ever talking to homeless people about it. The meager laws that do get passed to assist homeless persons usually reflect a woeful lack of knowledge and understanding of the scope of homelessness, and an attitude of blame towards the homeless person. In Washington State, we advocate and fight to keep our safety-net programs from being cut out of the budget every legislative session.
There are lawmakers who fight tooth-and-nail to get rid of programs that help single mothers feed their families or for homeless persons to get food stamps. They seem to think if you take away a mothers' help from the government, she will get off her lazy butt and take initiative on her own to feed her family, or if you stop building affordable and low-income housing, homeless people will somehow find a way to pay market-rate housing when they couldn't even afford to get off the streets in the first place. The arguments they make during the legislative session makes sense to them because the do not have a clue what is really going on with poverty and homelessness. Even the lawmakers that are on the side of homeless people don't know what it is like to be homeless or poor, but at least they are willing to be educated by advocates.
This must change. But the only way it will is to educate our lawmakers and give them a clear picture of what it means to be homeless. The challenges homeless people endure are almost impossible to overcome alone. The longer a person remains homeless, the harder it is to not be homeless. One would think that the longer a person works to get out of the mire of living on the streets, the better their chances are of finding a place to live, but believe it or not, just the opposite is true. This is because the psychological effects of long-term homelessness become more severe the longer the experience lasts.
Homeless people are not any different than the rest of us. Homelessness causes trauma, and trauma is debilitating. Demanding that a homeless person pull themselves up by their own bootstraps is tantamount to asking a sprinter to run a marathon. Being homeless is hard work, and even harder when the challenges are not only internal, but external as well. Here I speak of the myriad of social and human service programs in Washington State that have failed to come up with any kind of effective system to help homeless persons get off the street.
I have spoken to a lot of homeless people, and one thing that has become painfully obvious to me is that homeless people experience a sort of a domino effect in their lives that begins with the loss of self-esteem, and ends in an almost complete hopelessness and lack of the ability to create a sustained mindset of clear thinking that is needed to get off the street. It is almost impossible to "plan" your way out of homelessness when all that is on your mind is finding food during the day, and finding a safe place to sleep every night. On top of that, if it is cold you might actually die from exposure if you don't find a place to sleep that is inside.
According to the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness, who conducts the annual One Night Count of homeless persons, there are 3,265 people living in transitional housing, 2,906 persons living in homeless shelters, and 3,772 persons living on the street. This is a 21% increase from last year. Moreover, this statistics stands out in stark relief amidst the lauded 10 year plan to end homelessness in King County as we are in the 10th year of the plan.
To say as it bluntly as I can, the government has utterly and completely failed to help homeless persons in the last 10 years. Programs that are designed to provide better assistance to the poor and homeless in Washington State have been drastically cut, other programs to help end homelessness have been done away with altogether. This kind of behavior from our lawmakers tends to make me doubt that there was ever any real commitment to end homelessness at all. What makes this whole situation particularly distressing is that while politicians praise their failed 10 year plan, homeless people have been literally dying in alleys and under bridges each winter for the last 10 years.
So, it is now as it always has been in this country, any help for the poor and homeless must come in the form of a real and sustained grass-roots effort like the 99% movement. If we don't stand up for ourselves we will continue to be ignored by our government. Unfortunately for the homeless, the stakes not only involve income inequality, but literally life and death.
Stand up, and speak truth to power!
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