TheLoop21.com

By: Raechal Leone (Add to your loop)
Thu, 04/23/2009 - 00:00

Homelessness is increasing due to the recession.

Between the new Jamie Foxx movie, The Soloist, and news stories about people losing their homes due to foreclosure and lost jobs, it's hard to ignore the homeless these days. Suddenly, they look a lot more like someone we know, maybe even us.

"Over the last couple years, starting with the foreclosure crisis, we started seeing so-called 'new homeless' seeking help either by phone or in person or by e-mail," said Michael Stoops, executive director of the the National Coalition for the Homeless in Washington, D.C. "We're going to have a lot more people stuck in homelessness. Our shelters are full."

Figuring out just how many people are experiencing homelessness at a given time is difficult, but many organizations try. The National Alliance to End Homelessness, for example, estimated that in 2007, 671,859 people were homeless on a given night. And the U.S. Conference of Mayor estimated, based on its 2006 survey of 25 cities, about 42 percent of the homeless are black, 39 percent are white, 13 percent are Latino, while 4 percent are Native American and 2 percent are Asian American.

The new wave of additional people needing help began in late 2007 and continues, Stoops said, although the recession didn't officially begin until December 2007.

Foxx's character in the movie, Nathaniel Ayers, is a homeless schizophrenic who spent years living on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. He's not unlike many of the homeless out there even before the recession. (The National Coalition for the Homeless estimates about 8 percent of people who are part of a homeless family and about 22 percent of homeless individuals suffer from a mental illness.)

Many people experiencing homelessness for the first time in the recession may have, until recently, been living in their own house or apartment and maybe even had friends and family they turned to for a while. Not that long ago, they had a way of paying rent or a mortgage.

Now they're all part of a group and a problem that's expected to grow. Early (and unofficial) numbers from the Department of Housing and Urban Development's annual count of people living on the streets, in shelters or in transitional housing showed 35 of 56 cities nationally are seeing increased homelessness, according to USA Today.

With unemployment at 8.5 percent in March — 13.3 percent for blacks — the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities said "there's little doubt that the worsening recession will cause a substantial increase in homelessness, particularly among families with children." The think tank projected "the ranks of the poor could expand by up to 10 million and the ranks of the very poor by up to 6 million," if national unemployment hits 9 percent. Many of those people would undoubtedly end up without a permanent home.

Worse, as Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post pointed out, much of the data behind some of the latest homelessness reports are from before the recession, so future reports are likely to show a more dire situation.

Homeless advocates like Stoops are already hearing more from the mainstream media. But it's important we don't focus so much on the people who are newly homeless that we forget about people like Ayers.

"From my viewpoint, (there's been) tremendous interest from media and interest in the 'new homeless,' because they've already written about the old homeless," Stoops said. "We can't neglect those groups of people" who've experienced homelessness over a long period of time.

President Barack Obama's aware of this, judging by comments he made during a primetime news conference last month. "You know, the homeless problem was bad even when the economy was good," he said. "Part of the change in attitudes that I want to see here in Washington and all across the country is a belief that it is not acceptable for children and families to be without a roof over their heads in a country as wealthy as ours."

The federal government is spending $1.5 billion in stimulus money on homelessness, but it won't end it altogether.

Now that the homeless have captured our attention, we need to find a way to help all of them and to solve this problem that has cost us so much money and opportunity for so long. 

More information about homelessness in America:

Washington, D.C., homeless advocate Eric Sheptock's blog

Facts about who's homeless and why from the National Coalition for the Homeless

America's Youngest Outcasts: State Report Card on Child Homelessness from the National Center on Family Homelessness

A quick look at how the recession's affecting homelessness in major cities from USA Today

How to help:

Serve.gov Web site for finding volunteer opportunities

Raechal Leone is TheLoop21.com's senior editor. She writes the Inside The Loop blog.

Should Fannie Mae get more bailout money?

Yes, we can't let it fail.

No, they got enough bailout money

Maybe, if this is guaraneed to help

I don't know enough about it