Recession Increasing Interest In Homelessness

This week the homeless population of the United States received a profile boost. On Tuesday, during President Obama's primetime press conference, a reporter from Ebony magazine asked about the rise of tent cities across the country and a new study showing that every fiftieth American child is homeless.

"Part of the change in attitudes that I want to see here in Washington and all across the country," the president said in response, "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."

A change in attitudes may be underway. While the recession has exacerbated homelessness, it has not created a new phenomenon. Take it from Obama: "The homeless problem was bad even when the economy was good," he told the Ebony reporter.

The headlines about shantytowns and homeless children may reflect more of an increase in interest in homelessness than the impact of the recession. Those tent-dwellers sunk their stakes before this recession started, and the child homelessness study is based on data from three years ago. The tents and the homeless kids are indicative not of the current economy, but of a long-standing problem.

That's not to say the recession has no effect. "This problem's been around ... but we know historically that during times of economic recession that the number of families on the street increases quite dramatically," says Ellen Bassuk, president of the National Center on Family Homelessness, the group behind the child homelessness study. Bassuk says family homelessness didn't become a problem in this country until the mid-eighties. Since then the rate of family homelessness has increased steadily, to the point where families now make up 34 percent of the overall homeless population.

Before hard numbers illustrating the current recession's impact on that population become available, Bassuk and other advocates say they're seeing an explosion of interest from the public and the media. Bassuk's study broke down the numbers of homeless kids state-by-state, generating intense coverage from local outlets across the country.

Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, says she's fielding lots of calls from media outlets looking to profile newly homeless people and homeless families.

"With the economic downturn, people who have not been poor before are now facing the situation," says Duffield, whose organization released a study in December showing that public schools across the country reported dramatic increases in the number of homeless students between the 2007 and 2008 school years. "Homelessness is becoming more of a middle-class issue."

Michael Stoops, director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, says the change in attitudes is indeed afoot. "Everyone's now admitting there's an increase in homelessness, especially for families and children."

Comments

[superstition]

12:43 AM on 04/18/2009

Consider the phrase "net worth". If that's not Social Darwinism, I don't know what is -- as if a person's worth is actually defined by how many material possessions they have.

Monopoly is a great example of our cultural mindset, although it does make chance more of a factor than our culture trains us to believe is participatory. Carnegie certainly was not the first or the last rich person to argue that the wealthy are special people who are ordained to be the overlords of the masses.

[jalowe1957]

10:24 PM on 03/27/2009

Let's face it, folks. It's a long slippery slope down from Leavittown to Hooverville.

From one little box made of ticky-tacky to another, they all seem to look the same.

[superstition]

04:27 PM on 03/27/2009

Up to 40% of homeless kids in America are gay.

http://www.thetaskforce.org/reports_and_research/homeless_youth

They're routinely thrown out of their homes by homophobic parents. One study found that over 1 in 4 gay kids were thrown out like trash. Is law enforcement doing anything? No. Is society doing anything? No.

Is anyone in the mainstream talking about this right now, in the midst of this new focus on homelessness? No.

[aweissnet]

10:11 PM on 03/27/2009

This can not possibly be accurate.

I think homeless children are children in families that are homeless, but I can't claim to be right.

[superstition]

04:26 PM on 03/28/2009

"I think homeless children are children in families that are homeless, but I can't claim to be right."

Think again. Connie Chung's Eye to Eye did a special about this in 1998, and the problem hasn't gone away.

There is real data about this. The majority of homeless gay kids are not with their families. They were thrown out.

[zedhed]

04:18 PM on 03/27/2009

i guess legalizing and selling marijuana to create revenue and cost savings that could help alleviate the homeless problem is out of the question.

funny, i need the extra food stamps i received before, but i guess more important people need help so some has trickled down to me.

i guess i should hope the economy worsens.

[gorideabike]

03:52 PM on 03/27/2009

I have worked for 8 years in a soup kitchen. I know two things for sure.
One is it is a growth industry. Lots of new faces are showing up. Families are coming in too to feed their kids.
The other thing is homelessness can happen to you too. It does not take much to tip people into this abyss. Lose a job, get screwed on a mortgage, get sick, or be branded a felon for life by the prison system, and guess what? I invite those who think homeless people want to live that way to spend a week on the streets of their town.
I volunteer. Perhaps you have a skill with tax preparation, auto repair, legal advice, family counseling, that you could donate to needy people. We all benefit when homeless people are restored. Remember: We're all in this together.

[research]

02:51 PM on 03/27/2009

There but for the grace of god go you and I.

It can happen to you.

Be generous.

[interventor]

02:47 PM on 03/27/2009

I've seen the same tents for the homeless all over Paris and France, in general, since at least 2004. So, its not limited to the US. Also, shacks that resemble hooverviles.

[aweissnet]

10:12 PM on 03/27/2009

Really?

[Yamunation]

12:49 PM on 03/27/2009

People and the media are interested in homelessness now, because people who had money, now no longer have it and are winging up homeless. Otherwise, we think of homeless people as mentally ill, or lazy bums, and we don't care to help. But people who once had more money? Whoa, THEM, we gotta help.

[markinaz]

12:37 PM on 03/27/2009

Hmm. Started exploding in the mid-eighties....who was president then...hmmm...can't seem to put my finger on it...

[jadeba]

02:13 PM on 03/27/2009

You've got it, thank you RR. He closed the shelters, stopped funding for the neediest among us. I remember when it was shocking to see someone living on the street - no more.

[superstition]

03:51 PM on 03/27/2009

The homelessness will trickle down, right?

Supply-side tents...

[jennytaylia]

12:21 PM on 03/27/2009

Christ said, "The poor you will always have with you." I don't take this as a religious statement, but just a statement of human fact; however, that doesn't mean we shouldn't work to solve the problem as much as possible--just that it's a complex issue that probably can never be completely eradicated.

[markinaz]

12:41 PM on 03/27/2009

This article is about homelessness. It's not about being poor. I'm poor and I still manage to have a roof over my head. The poor we will always have, but homelessness is absolutely unacceptable for anyone who wants one. Especially nowadays with so many abandoned dwellings in this country.

[aweissnet]

11:54 AM on 03/27/2009

"The homeless problem was bad even when the economy was good."

Not a good response, Mr. Prez.

[timm553]

01:30 PM on 03/27/2009

The truth is always a good response. If more people thought that way, we'd have fewer problems to deal with.

[IbeHappy]

11:05 AM on 03/27/2009

I'm thinking there's a book here "Homelessness for Idiots" The guide for formerly middle class people preparing for their next big move, into the streets. Could be a best seller.

Homelessness didn't become an issue until it became "one of us". As long as it was "them" it was ok, according to the way many act. We all remember "if they didn't want to live on the streets, they wouldn't be doing so."

[mitsu63]

11:01 AM on 03/27/2009

We will have homeless children in this country as long as an influential portion of our population continues to demonize socialism and think of poor people as the "other" whose needs are unimportant. Social Darwinism is an ugly thing, and has been a major problem in this country for a long time. I was a homeless child in the early 70s, and my parents were both Stanford-educated, from moneyed "American royalty" type families (Mayflower, DAR, etc. etc.). But guess what, downward social mobility can happen really fast. Maybe if some of these rich pigs are able to experience it for themselves, we might just see some progress.

[nicole44]

12:18 PM on 03/27/2009

I recently read an article, the name escapes me now, that those number of homeless children are inflated because they count kids that live with gaurdians and other family memebers as homeless because they are not with the birth parents.

[Joethepauper]

12:42 PM on 03/27/2009

Regardless of the exact numbers, there are homeless kids. The "corporate ladder" is in disrepair. When you have so many people on the bottom rungs, the weight tends to weaken the lower rungs. The rungs near the top rarely ever get used, and the paint is still fresh. We need to fix all those broken rungs at the bottom so they can support that much weight, and allow more people to climb higher. Paying people an extra buck an hour would be a great start. Where are the corporations supposed to get the money to pay people an extra dollar an hour? The bonuses and inflated salaries of the people at the top. Trust me, they won't miss it. It will just limit the amount of speculation and risky financial manuvers they like to use to increase their wealth. How about we Socialize the things people need and keep the things they want in the realm of Capitalism?

[neesy08]

10:58 AM on 03/27/2009

You know why there is an increase in interest of the homeless? It is who is homeless: middle class individuals and familes. Before it was the poor, mentally unstable, and those with chemical dependecies. The media did not care. They could not identifiy with these people. Now, they can identify with the homeless: It could be THEM next!

[TheBlackCat]

01:20 PM on 03/27/2009

so true

[TheBlackCat]

01:27 PM on 03/27/2009

It's not just homelessness. MANY problems in America are never largely discussed in the media or society until they start affecting the middle/upper middle class.

Anyone remember a few years ago when the media caught wind of the fact that an increasing number of middle class women were becoming high paid prostitutes, especially high school and college age girls? These weren't desperate women doing it to survive, just doing it for extra spending money. It was featured in all sorts of media outlets on how horrible it was.

A lot of people just aren't interested in an issue until it affects themselves or someone they know.

[solarian]

10:46 AM on 03/27/2009

these people were ever homeless I was for 4 years not fun