Helping the Homeless in the USA - Research Paper Example

 Helping the Homeless in the USA Introduction The volume of homeless in the United States continues to grow yearly, due to a wide variety of different reasons. Current economic conditions continue to lead to more housing foreclosures, leaving families and individuals with no option but to seek assistance from government services and make use of homeless shelters. Additionally, lack of affordable housing for low-income families, veterans and young adults forces homelessness on many in society. Homelessness affects mostly those who earn incomes below the poverty line or those who have been displaced from their career positions due to economic problems in the country. Homelessness is a significant problem in the United States, however there are solutions to help those affected. The Plight of Homelessness Smeeding (2005) offers that homelessness is much higher in the United States than in other developed countries due to the capitalistic system that drives the national economy. Capitalism leads to much larger disparity in income distribution between the different classes (e.g. upper class, middle class and working class members). Under the capitalistic system, most businesses and corporations provide products and services under the assumption that economic wealth gained by business has a trickle-down effect on consumers with long-run gains of providing consumers with a better quality of living. The goal of Republicans in the country is to maximize economic gains for the corporate sector as this political group tends to hold true to Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand theory, which states that it is acceptable for businesses to earn high profit so long as there are social programs, urban development, or other corporate social responsibility efforts launched by the corporate sector to benefit all of society. However, what this creates is a poor distribution of incomes across the country, where the corporate sector continues to gain increasing wealth and social status while the consumers who support capitalism continue to have their incomes eroded. Between 2007 and 2009, the demand for use of shelters for the homeless increased nearly 100 percent (Pabst, 2007). The current capitalistic system has led to the foreclosure crisis which is impacting millions of Americans, due to the irresponsible management of corporate wealth and the systems that drive the financial system. Much of the demand for shelter usage has been driven by people who have lost their homes and can no longer afford adequate shelter. The problem in this case is that the capitalistic system has developed a credit rating system by which businesses and lenders measure the worth of a consumer to attain long-term financing. Foreclosures dramatically lower a person’s credit score, leaving them with no options for affordable housing now that they have lost their most important asset: their home. Lee, Price-Spratlen & Kanan (2003) also supports that lack of affordable housing in the United States is leading to growth of homelessness. Since 1973, there have been dramatic decreases in the volume of available affordable housing units in the country due to growing demand and much higher income disparity between classes (Lee et al., 2003). In 1970, there was a surplus of these affordable shelter units in the country. In 2008, there was a supply issue showing a total national deficit of 3.1 million affordable housing units and, unfortunately, Section 8 (a government housing program) simply cannot sustain the high demand for rental and other housing support needs. Again, this illustrates that the capitalistic system has much more focus on those who are in better financial condition, where construction is allocated to higher-income buyers or those who have acceptable credit ratings and can afford long-term loan financing. The 2012 Federal Budget proposed by Barack Obama maintains significant funding growth for the homeless under the Opening Doors program designed to assist in many different sectors to reduce or halt homelessness in the country. The new budget has $4.8 billion allocated to this effort, which is a 23.4 percent increase in funding from 2010 (USICH, 2011). Offered President Obama about the problem, “Now more than ever, we have a responsibility to tackle national challenges like homelessness in the most cost-effective ways possible” (USICH, 2011, p.1). Even though the president has proposed a higher allocation to aiding the homeless problem, the $4.8 billion is not allocated to construction of more adequate low-income housing. Compared to other programs funded by the government, the volume of resources devoted to assisting the homeless represent only a small margin of yearly Federal budget spending. Furthermore, the key phrase in the President’s quote are cost-effective ways, illustrating that the Executive level of the government considers homeless spending to be a burden that should be cautiously budgeted to minimize the economic burden on government and society. It tends to illustrate the mentality of those who support economic profitability and the corporate philosophy of the Invisible Hand where individuals in need are compared to the dollar bill, even willing to publicly state that such spending is a cost burden to America. Because of the high volume of people displaced from adequate housing, many high-profile shelters and assistance agencies in society are over-burdened by demand without adequate supply of resources and program assistance systems. The U.S. Department of Housing and Development (2007) offers that national homeless shelters are at 90 percent of capacity on a daily basis. Many organizations such as the Salvation Army have capacity restrictions imposed on them, as well as budget constraints, which prevent expansion of shelter facilities. Rising costs within the supply chain, higher rents for commercial real estate, and lowered donations continue to compound this problem. Programs offering assistance or long-term shelter to those in need of housing are not targeted for federal or, sometimes, even state-level funding, thus organizations such as the Salvation Army are forced to identify their own revenue-building strategies in order to ensure they can serve the majority of the homeless. Herein lays the difficulty, however. There is little known about the characteristics of those who manage and administer services at high profile agencies such as the Salvation Army (Olivet et al., 2010). In a 1996 study of such providers and services, researchers conducted case studies of soup kitchens, shelters, homeless care centers, and other multi-service agencies that identified startling results. The homeless services labor force is somewhere between 200,000 and 327,000 nationally, consisting of those responsible for management, program development, or service delivery (Olivet et al., 2010). People who are homeless have very complex psychological, sociological and physiological needs in order to get adequate support. The 1996 study identified that many who are responsible for aiding the homeless are unskilled, untrained, and are usually provided very low wages by their servicing agencies (Olivet et al., 2010). Many of these homeless service workers experience job burnout and there is a great deal of high employment turnover in this industry due to being over-worked and over-challenged by limited budgets from the agency, state-level government and federal government (Olivet et al., 2010). The agencies that are established to assist the homeless, therefore, are being staffed by individuals without the academic or training resources needed to assist the complex and dynamic needs of the homeless. Many homeless have drug and alcohol addictions, histories of violence both sexual and physical, clinical depression, and other sociological problems. Agencies such as the Salvation Army using program directors and case workers without incentives systems or adequate training in psychology and sociology continues to compound the problem of offering adequate homeless service care. This is a significant problem when people with complicated needs rely on these individuals as knowledge and support resources. What can be Done? In the news media today, society is hearing much about socialism and the redistribution and reallocation of wealth. Those who earn high profits from activities of the corporate and financial sector are significantly against this practice, believing it to be unfair to those who earned high wealth under the capitalistic system. Any efforts by government actors that attempt to promote these redistributions find very high levels of opposition from corporate leadership, Republican membership, and citizens in society that have been misinformed of socialism policy by decades of national propaganda. However, adopting government policies that impose higher taxation on high-income businesses and individuals could be redistributed throughout the entire national supply chain to provide more adequate housing. Rejecting many aspects of the capitalistic system in favor of more socialistic policies would also be a job creator by improving the housing sector, retailing, and many other industries by using wealth from the corporate sector and ensuring it is distributed properly to those in need. Clearly, the problem within the agencies and organizations that provide assistance to the homeless needs readjustment. Case workers and support services workers need training, incentives programs, and assistance from reputable mental health administrators in order to provide any sort of meaningful homeless services or rehabilitation to those in need. Since they are not getting support from Federal or state-level sources (in most instances), agencies such as the Salvation Army should be seeking alliances with corporations and other charities to identify new strategic policies for revenue-building, human resources support, and facilities development/management. Operating as stand-alone agencies with inefficient and under-trained staff is of no benefit to the growing homeless problem and it requires immediate focus by appropriate government administrators and state-level agencies. Furthermore, the credit rating system that poses only advantages to the financially advantaged in society requires dramatic readjustment and correction. A singular event during a period of short-term economic despair for an individual affected by foreclosure or job loss has very long-lasting consequences. These systems should be redeveloped so that only certain credit information is included in various crediting reporting agencies documentation and only when explanatory circumstances cannot justify poor credit situations. This would require federal government intervention and cooperation from the agencies that profit from the credit ratings system to have advantage to those who cannot get adequate housing due to poor credit. Under the current system, which is driven by capitalistic belief, a one-time experience of default on bill payments can linger and plague the consumer for seven years unless they take steps to remove the information. However, this process is time-consuming and difficult to accomplish, which only worsens the problem once an individual has been served their eviction notice from the housing lending facility. Conclusion If the proposed steps are undertaken, it will reduce homelessness in America. These steps will also provide better support and rehabilitation for those affected by homelessness, making them more quality members of society. It is only with cooperation, better funding, better strategic actions within homeless support agencies, and by changing capitalistic values that the problem will see a reduction and provide rewards for the needy homeless. References Lee, B.A., Price-Spratlen, T. & Kanan, J.W. (2003). Determinants of Homelessness in Metropolitan Areas, Journal of Urban Affairs, 25(3), pp.335-356. Olivet, Jeffrey, Paquette, K., Hanson, J. & Bassuk, E. (2010). The Future of Homeless Services: An Introduction, The Open Health Services and Policy Journal, 3(1), pp.30.33. Pabst, Georgia. (2009). National Report Details Plight of Homeless Children; Local Situation Growing Worse, Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, Retrieved September 27, 2012 from http://www.homelesschildrenamerica.org/documents/MilwaukeeWisconsinJournalSentin el_YoungandHomeless.pdf Smeeding, T. (2005). Public Policy, Economic Inequality and Poverty: The United States in Comparative Perspective, Social Science Quarterly, 86(Supplement), pp.955-983. USICH. (2011). Fiscal Year 2012 Federal Government Budget Fact Sheet, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, Retrieved September 28, 2012 from http://library.constantcontact.com/download/get/file/1011269667270- 77/FY+12+Budget+Fact+Sheet_02_14_11.pdf U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. (2007). The Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, Retrieved September 27, 2012 from http://www.huduser.org/Publications/pdf/ahar.pdf Read More