A Call To Action

Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. People who are poor are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income. Being poor means that you are only an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.

The minimum wage is often not up to the task of supporting a family.

In many areas, working full time for minimum wage does not earn enough to pay rent, utilities and food. While people can combine incomes to rent an apartment they often run into snags such as discovering that the number of working adults required to cover rent and bills combined with their minor children will exceed the number of occupants allowed by their lease. Additionally, many apartment complexes run credit checks which can prevent people with poor credit from renting; things like unpaid medical bills can prevent working people from finding a place to rent.

Using the facts for the national average, a family must earn $38,355 a year, that comes out to $18.44 an hour, in order to be able to afford a simple two-bedroom apartment at the 2010 national average fair market rent of $959. However, the average wage for U.S. renters is $14.44 an hour, down from $14.69 last year. Further, more than 60 percent of U.S. renters live in counties where even the average one-bedroom fair market rent of $805 isn't affordable for average wage earners, the study found.

Minimum wage earners are at the greatest disadvantage. Under the standard measure of affordability — housing costs should account for no more than 30 percent of income — full-time minimum wage earners can't afford one-bedroom apartments in any county in the country, even though Congress increased the minimum wage from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 last year.

For every new affordable-housing unit that's constructed, two are demolished, abandoned or converted to condominiums or expensive rentals, according to the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

With the number of renters growing because of foreclosures and the deflated housing market, the Low Income Housing Coalition says it's time for policymakers to put more money into rental assistance and affordable housing.

Throughout the housing crisis and recession, lawmakers have focused resources and attention mainly on helping troubled homeowners avoid foreclosure, but some 40 percent of foreclosures also displace renter households, according to the report.

National Low Income Housing Coalition

It is a tragic aspect of our culture that homeless people, in addition to suffering from the hardship of their condition, are subjected to alienation and discrimination by mainstream society. It is even more tragic that alienation and discrimination often spring from incorrect myths and stereotypes which surround homelessness. The following examines some of the myths and the realities about homelessness.

Myth: Homeless people commit more violent crimes than housed people.
Fact: Homeless people actually commit less violent crimes than housed people.

Myth: Setting up services for homeless people will cause homeless people from all around to migrate to a city.
Fact: Studies have shown that homeless people do not migrate for services. To the extent they do move to new areas, it is because they are searching for work, have family in the area, or other reasons not related to services.

Myth: Homeless people don't work and get most of their money from public assistance programs.
Fact: Homeless people do work, and a relatively small percentage of them receive government assistance. A nationwide study found that only 20% of the homeless receives government assistance

Myth: Most homeless people are mentally ill.
Fact: It is estimated that from 15-25 percent of all homeless are mentally ill, far below “most.” However, since in the general population of the United States up to 40 percent of all people are diagnosed with a mental illness sometime in their lives, it must be seen that there is something amiss with these statistics.

Myth: Most homeless people choose homelessness.
Fact: Homelessness is almost no one’s choice. In one estimate, approximately 6% of the homeless chose that as a lifestyle. But the point of fact is that it is not so much that people choose homelessness, as some refuse the demands made upon them to maintain a house or apartment. To live in a house or an apartment requires on to work for 40 or more hours a week at minimum wage, just to pay for housing, food and utilities. Those who are excellent at keeping a budget might be able to also afford a car. But most of those on the street suffer from some kind of limitation on their ability to do that kind of labor. It could be mental illness or addiction, or it could be a social limitation, or it could be an inherent refusal to do that much work for so little gained.

Most people who become homeless are willing to do whatever they can to return back into the standard economic requirements of our society. It is the chronic homeless who have difficulties entering back into that work force.

National Health Care for the Homeless Council

In Bremerton, Washington area, the Fair Market Rent (FMR) for a two-bedroom apartment is $894. In order to afford this level of rent and utilities, without paying more than 30% of income on housing, a household must earn $2,980 monthly or $35,760 annually. Assuming a 40-hour work week, 52 weeks per year, this level of income translates into a Housing Wage of $17.19.

In Bremerton, Washington area, a minimum wage worker earns an hourly wage of $8.55. In order to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom apartment, a minimum wage earner must work 80 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Or, a household must include 2.0 minimum wage earner(s) working 40 hours per week year-round in order to make the two bedroom FMR affordable.

In Bremerton, Washington area, the estimated mean (average) wage for a renter is $10.20 an hour. In order to afford the FMR for a two-bedroom apartment at this wage, a renter must work 67 hours per week, 52 weeks per year. Or, working 40 hours per week year-round, a household must include 1.7 worker(s) earning the mean renter wage in order to make the two-bedroom FMR affordable.

Monthly Supplemental Security Income (SSI) payments for an individual are $674 in Washington. If SSI represents an individuals sole source of income, $202 in monthly rent is affordable, while the FMR for a one-bedroom is $726.

National Low Income Housing Coalition

Homeless people face many problems beyond the lack of a safe and suitable home. They are often faced with many social disadvantages and reduced access to private and public services such as:

Reduced access to health care.

Limited access to education.

Increased risk of suffering from violence and abuse.

General discrimination from other people.

Not being seen as suitable for employment.

Reduced access to banking services to save money.

Reduced access to communications technology, such as telephones and the internet.

These are a few of the difficulties that someone who becomes homeless may face. One other difficulty that many homeless face are unsubstantiated stories (myths) that abound about their plight. These difficulties contribute to the acceleration and perpetuation of crisis. Once someone becomes homeless, it becomes extremely difficult to remedy the situation without stabilizing their lives through access to shelter, amenities, stable employment, and humanitarian.

Health care for the homeless is a major public health challenge.

Homeless people are more likely to suffer injuries and medical problems from their lifestyle on the street, which includes poor nutrition, substance abuse, exposure to the severe elements of weather, and a higher exposure to violence (robberies, beatings, and so on). Yet at the same time, they have little access to public medical services or clinics. This is a particular problem in the US where many people lack health insurance. Each year, millions of people in the United States experience homelessness and are in desperate need of health care services. Most do not have health insurance of any sort, and none have cash to pay for medical care.

Homeless persons often find it difficult to document their date of birth or their address. Because homeless people usually have no place to store possessions, they often lose their belongings, including their identification and other documents, or find them destroyed by police or others. Without a photo ID, homeless persons cannot get a job or access many social services. They can be denied access to even the most basic assistance: clothing closets, food pantries, certain public benefits, and in some cases, emergency shelters.

Obtaining replacement identification is difficult. Without an address, birth certificates cannot be mailed. Fees may be cost-prohibitive for impoverished persons. And some states will not issue birth certificates unless the person has photo identification, creating a Catch-22.

This problem is far less acute in countries which provide free-at-use health care, such as the UK, where hospitals are open-access day and night, and make no charges for treatment. In the US, free-care clinics, especially for the homeless do exist in major cities, but they are usually over-burdened with patients.