Who Suffers Most from Homelessness?
Ignoring Family Homelessness Is Not the Solution
Every year when the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) reports to Congress and releases the latest statistics about homelessness, I fume. When will you count the babies, toddlers, and kids?
This year’s number, a record-breaking 650,000, reflects a minuscule portion of the actual homeless population because of HUD’s limited definition of homelessness. Even the Department of Education’s 1.2 million official count of public school students identified as homeless is an undercount, and it doesn’t include the littlest ones.
Officials in cities and towns across the country decry the visible presence of women and men on the streets. These same officials fail to pay any attention to families and youth languishing in various forms of homelessness.
A consequential oversight: ignoring family homelessness
Families are less visible — they tend to double up with family, friends, or acquaintances, or bounce from couches to cheap motels, or sleep in parking lots. Thus, they don’t get the assistance needed to return to housing stability. HUD deems them “Not Homeless Enough.”
Homelessness in any form is traumatically devastating, but for babies, toddlers and young children, that repercussion often paves the way for homelessness later in life. This pipeline, research confirms, has affected an astounding 85% of homeless adults on our streets.
Eviction Lab points out the extent that children suffer from homelessness creation, aka eviction. They have also identified that evictions disproportionately impact Black families.
Every year, 2.9 million children under age 18 are threatened with eviction and 1.5 million are evicted. These children represent four in every ten people who are threatened with eviction each year…
Black renters face a disproportionate share of evictions. Less than one in every five renters in America is Black (18.8%), but over half of all eviction filings are against Black renters (51.1%)…Racial disparities in eviction risk are also compounded by the higher risk of eviction faced by those living with children.
Addressing homelessness requires collaboration
This year, because I’m now living in one place, near Boone, NC, I’ve become more involved in the issue of local homelessness as experienced by those “camping.” This summer I weighed in on what Boone had done to oust those in three campgrounds not far from the over-capacity shelter.
My op-ed piece sparked a call from Boone’s Police Chief Andy LaBeau which led to not one, but two fruitful meetings, the second including Tina Krause, the head of Hospitality House, the local homelessness program, and Boone’s Mayor Tim Futrelle. I remain hopeful that solutions other than “sweeping” or criminalizing homelessness will be developed.
But, what still isn’t happening — in Boone or anywhere — is looking upstream. We know people first become vulnerable to homelessness and related hardships when they’re young. How about a concerted effort to stop homelessness before it happens? Why not reinstitute the proven steps to prevent homelessness and support struggling families that we saw during Covid?
The programs contained in 2020′s Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act — known as the Cares Act — and American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 targeted many aspects of American poverty. More people got access to health care through Medicaid. Schools were able to provide more free meals. Food stamp recipients got more money. Grants boosted child-care subsidies. Evictions were halted, and government funds covered unpaid rent. Unemployment benefits were extended. And stimulus checks and expanded child tax credit payments hit bank accounts.
The short-lived agenda produced measurable results. According to the Census Bureau, the child tax credits alone pulled 5.3 million people out of poverty in 2021. (Washington Post, 8/7/23)
Solutions to Family Homelessness Continues to Vex Policymakers
Where did the idea come from that if we make people suffer more they’ll somehow get motivated — much less be able — to change their lives?
Families must jump through confusing and obscure hoops to qualify for housing assistance. Navigating HUD’s baffling “system” to get help is nigh unto impossible on your own.
For example:
If you and your family are sleeping in a car or on the streets, and you let a generous friend pay for your family’s motel room, even for a night, that disqualifies you from the labyrinthian process of getting help.
Fitting the HUD definition of homelessness is the key to finding housing through Coordinated Entry, though by no means a guarantee.
People can get disqualified for counterintuitive reasons.
Accepting a hotel room paid for by a friend, for example, moves people into the “housed” category for that night.
“Even though it might be a temporary hotel stay, you just lost your place in line,” said Joan Penney, spokesperson for Housing Hope, explaining federal rules families might not know.
People living in a hotel could still meet the HUD definition of “chronically homeless” and remain eligible for housing. Or they could be disenrolled from Coordinated Entry until they meet the definition again. (HeraldNet, 11/11/23)
Bad credit and evictions on your record also will keep most property owners from renting to you. The relentless spate of private equity firms buying up houses to flip into the lucrative short-term rental “industry” has further crimped available affordable housing, leading to a ripple effect that contributes to homelessness while enriching property owners.
What can we do?
I’m (just) a one-woman nonprofit, HEAR US Inc., and I’ve worked on this issue of family homelessness for the past 3+ decades. But I have powerful friends in high places, like SchoolHouse Connection. Their astute policy wonks have developed a reasonable approach to our nation’s family homelessness situation.
- SHC makes it easy to contact your elected officials about these legislative actions (described here).
- Have an immediate impact in your community by picking from a suggestion from the Charlie Book: 60 Ways to Help Homeless Kids.
I know we face a plethora of vital issues in our country and world. I’ll keep harping on the need to ease family and youth homelessness as long as I am able. Visit www.hearus.us to learn more.
