Homelessness is not a crime; it is the result of unfortunate circumstances. Theft, assault, child neglect, and abuse are crimes. Having debt, addiction, mental illness, and other reasons for homelessness are not necessarily crimes in and of themselves.
The prevalence of homelessness in the US
Maggie McCarty, Analyst in Social Legislation of the Domestic Social Policy Division for the Library of Congress, coordinated the 2005 Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report for Congress. According to the CRS Report, there were an estimated 600,000 to 2.5 million homeless people in the US in 2005. The economic crisis currently pushing thousands of people out of their homes due to bankruptcy and foreclosure has caused the homeless population to rise in number over the last few years. This is an epidemic because homelessness, by its very nature, fosters a significantly lowered quality of life.
Homeless shelters in the US
Homeless shelters are available in some areas, but they are only temporary shelters providing basic necessities with the resources available to them. They do not have enough beds or food for everyone in need. Families are sometimes divided because some shelters only admit men and some only admit women and children. Once a shelter is full for the night the staff must close its doors to anyone else, leaving many people on the street for the night. There is simply not enough space or resources for more people.
Homeless individuals are more exposed to the elements than people with long-term shelter, enduring cold weather, hot and humid weather, wind, rain, and sometimes freezing temperatures and snow. This extreme weather causes dehydration, heat exhaustion, sunburns, and even death in the summer; and wind burn, hypothermia, illness, and potential death n the winter. Many shelters are not open year-round, only operating in the summer and fall. Some organizations and churches attempt to keep rotating shelters open through the winter months, switching locations week by week, but there is no guarantee of winter shelter.
Disease prevention for homeless people
Homeless people may spend days or weeks without the opportunity to bathe or even wash their hands, the quickest and easiest way to prevent illness. This puts them at a greater risk of exposure to infectious diseases and prolonged illnesses.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated in the September, 2008, edition of its Emerging Infectious Disease journal that infectious diseases are prevalent among the homeless. "National public health programs specific to homeless populations are required." The CDC recommends "systematic vaccination against hepatitis B virus, hepatitis A virus, influenza, Streptococcus pneumoniae, and diphtheria". Homeless people are also more susceptible to lice and tuberculosis (United States). Without healthcare and shelter it is difficult to combat even minor illnesses; major illnesses are impossible to eradicate in those circumstances.
The CRS Report states that there is not one agreed-upon definition of homelessness by the US government, but most federal agencies "define a homeless individual as a person who lacks a fixed and night-time residence or whose primary residence is a supervised public or private shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations, . . . a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings" (McCarty).
Tent cities
Under the CRS Report's definition, people living in tent cities are considered homeless by the US government. A tent city is a community of people living in tents on land they do not own because they have lost their homes, for one reason or another. "Forty-four percent of the nation's homeless are unsheltered," according to the Pacific Coast Report by The National Coalition for the Homeless (NCH). Tent cities are growing throughout the US because many Americans cannot afford to remain in their own residences.
Neil Donovan, Executive Director of NCH, says "tent cities are America's de facto waiting room for affordable and accessible housing. The idea of someone living in a tent (or other encampment) in this country says little about the decisions made by those who dwell within and so much more about our nation's inability to adequately respond to those in need." This is why change is necessary. People can only thrive within the resources available to them.
Rudy Guiliani's Plans for the Homeless of New York
Although there are individuals who choose to be homeless, many find themselves stuck in a cycle of poverty, addiction, or illness from which they cannot escape on their own. Former mayor of New York, Rudy Guiliani, attempted to create reform for homeless New Yorkers in 1999, but his ideas were scarily close to forcing homeless people into indentured servitude. Under Guiliani's plan, homeless people would be arrested and prosecuted as criminals if they did not accept an offer of shelter.
He went on to suggest that if they were able, they should also work for the housing they received, even if they did not want it in the first place. If they denied housing they would be sent to jail (Hurley). This would mean more tax dollars used to house and feed people unnecessarily imprisoned. Only people who commit actual crimes, such as theft and assault, should be criminally prosecuted, whether they are homeless or not.
Sources
- Donovan, Neil. Tent Cities in America: A Pacific Coast Report National Coalition for the Homeless. National Coalition for the Homeless. 4 Mar. 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.
- ---. Winter Homeless Services: Bringing Our Neighbors in from the Cold. National Coalition for the Homeless. National Coalition for the Homeless. 4 Mar. 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2011.
- Hurley, Jennifer. The Homeless: Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2002. Print.
- McCarty, Maggie. Homelessness: Recent Statistics, Targeted Federal Programs, and Recent Legislation. Federation of American Scientists. 31 May 2005. 5 Mar. 2010.
- United States. Centers for Disease Control. Preventing and Controlling Emerging and Reemerging Transmissible Diseases in the Homeless By Badiaga, Sekene, Didier Raoult, and Phillipe Brouqui. 13th ed. Department of Health and Human Services. Sep. 2008. Web. 10 Mar. 2010.
Melissa Logan - Melissa Logan enlisted in the U.S. Navy as a Cryptologic Maintenance Technician after graduating from high school. After six years, she ...
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