A little while back I posted an article from the Washington Post about homelessness. As some of you are aware, homelessness does not exist solely and simply because people refuse to get a job. However, it appears there are people out there who believe that is the case. Here's the reality. A large percentage of homeless men are veterans. A large percentage of homeless are teens. Another portion have a mental illness and are unable to get treatment. This doesn't cover everything. However, the three reasons I briefly discuss should give you an idea. I have posted a link at the end to the grants page from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Everyone should be very aware at this point that the unemployment rate among veterans is incredibly high. They have served our country and are then unable to find employment. Without income, you are unable to provide for yourself. Companies not hiring veterans does not benefit our country in any way. PTSD, sexual assault, mental illness and substance abuse are additional reasons for homelessness among veterans. Our veterans have taken care of us. We are doing a lousy job in taking care of them.
The next group I I'm going to discuss: teens. (Side note: approx. 40 % of our homeless population are under the age of 18). When I read this it shocked me at first, then I dug into why and then it wasn't so surprising. Here are a some of the reasons: aging out of foster care, trying to avoid forced entry to a gang or prostitution, release from juvenile justice system with little education and support, sexual, emotional or physical abuse in the household, immigration, LGBT, teenage pregnancy, etc. The reality is that when teens become homeless, there is not only a huge chance of them entering into prostitution but are extremely susceptible to human trafficking, a growing problem in the US.
Anyone want to know what happens when mental illness goes untreated? When the mental health facilities closed at the end of the 1970s, there were no community programs established to fill the void and a vast number became homeless. When that happened, people who were being treated were no longer being treated and their illness increased in severity. In that situation, what are the chances of finding employment or anyone hiring you? As we have found in the recent reports, public safety is not as educated as we would have hoped when coming in contact with mental illness. More times than not, someone with a mental illness is arrested (recently we have seen worse) when they come in contact with public safety. This is due to lack of education and inability to distinguish between someone with mental illness and someone who is in fact a criminal. A number of times people with mental illness go to jail or prison and are not treated. They get out and the cycle continues until someone realizes what is actually happening and a treatment program is established. As of now, prisons are the largest provider of mental health treatment in the United States.
Currently, there is an effort to revitalize our downtown. There was a workshop on July 8th at the library. Homelessness was mentioned as one of the major obstacles in this effort. How about instead of treating it as an obstacle, we treat it as an effort and a mission? A mission to do what we can as a community to get grants and develop a program to assist those who are homeless and not just revitalize the downtown, but revitalize our city as a whole. It is a known fact that surrounding cities have shuffled the homeless off to our city. Those cities could have stepped in and assisted. I do not want our city to be the next city in line to do that.
I am hoping that after reading just the tiny bit of information that I have provided that your reaction and thoughts about homelessness has shifted. I have provided some really great links below regarding what I just posted.
http://www.hhs.gov/homeless/grants/index.html
http://www.va.gov/homeless/
http://khon2.com/2015/07/06/veterans-affairs-secretary-in-hawaii-to-discuss-challenges-including-homelessness/
http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/02/young-homelessand-invisible/385355/
https://stepuptogether.org/
