Homelessness+Controversies

Top 5 controversies of homelessness: 1. The Complex Causes of Homelessness Political, economic and social factors all contribute to homelessness. Systemic problems such as lack of affordable housing, high costs of health care and unlivable wages are often out the people’s control. 85% of Americans wrongly attribute the cause of homelessness to laziness, justifying discrimination. Appropriate solutions can only be found with a thorough understanding of homelessness. 2. Criminalizing the Homeless Many cities face the problem of having to turn away homeless people seeking shelter due to lack of housing. Laws veiled as inner city revitalization target homeless people to get them off the streets. Criminalization of the homeless include criminal penalty for panhandling, prohibiting of feeding homeless people, and sweeps of cities areas inhabited by homeless people. Instead of working on constructive alternatives, these laws only hide the problems of homelessness from public view. 3. Creating More Affordable Housing Government solutions to affordable housing include housing trust funds to leverage resources to increase affordable housing and Inclusionary Zone programs that require developers to create affordable housing. NIMBY (not in my back yard) opposition argue that affordable housing negatively impacts property values, town infrastructure, social services and schools. 4. Defining Homeless individuals living in motels, cars or with friend sand family are no longer part of the homeless count. Some advocates suggest that the federal definition of homelessness should be expanded to address the bigger problem of not having a home of one’s own. Opponents argue that having more people in the homeless category will not help find solutions but will only serve as more distraction. 5. Shelters or housing? Because homeless providers are unable to keep up with the increased demand, communities are creating new emergency shelters. Many argue that shelters simply manage homelessness without ending it. Instead, resources should go towards developing housing and providing case management. Research shows that permanent supportive housing are cheaper and more effective than shelters. The housing first approach spend $13,000-25,000 each per person for chronically homeless individuals while shelters spend 35,000-150,000.