Homelessness is a housing issue
I often encounter a young man who is homeless near where I live. He rides a bicycle around the area, carrying a sign asking for money for food that he shows periodically. I’ve tried talking with him, but he has an obvious medical condition that makes it very difficult for him to speak. To me, he is a visible reminder of the people experiencing homelessness in this country.
Unfortunately, on any given night the chronically unsheltered we see — the people on street corners, under bridges, and in tents — only represent about 10% of the total number of people experiencing homelessness. This is as true in Orlando as it is in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York. Most people experiencing homelessness do so invisibly. They live out of cars, in hotel rooms or perhaps in the woods, struggling to overcome stereotypes as well as economic hardships.
It is true that a proportion of people experiencing homelessness suffer from mental-health issues, drug abuse, or alcoholism, particularly among the 10% listed above. However, most people become homeless in stages due to a variety of circumstances placing them in a financial predicament from which they cannot escape. A lost job, an unexpected medical bill, or an expensive car repair can be enough to force a family onto the street. From there, they work to try and scrimp together enough cash to pay for an apartment. Many succeed. However, while the average amount of time a person or family is homeless in this country is eight days, the effects of their experience can cause problems for years.
The most compelling challenge facing our community is to change the way we think about homelessness. In their recent book, “Homelessness Is A Housing Problem,” authors Gregg Colburn and Clayton Page Aldern make the argument that the factors many of us assume create increased levels of homelessness in a community are incorrect. While drug use, criminal activities, mental illness, alcoholism, and climate all play a role, they are insignificant compared to one overriding issue — the cost of housing. The authors compared thirty communities across the country controlling for poverty, mental illness, drug use, and other factors, and found a consistent trend. All other things being equal, those communities with higher rents and housing costs have more people experiencing homelessness.
With our increasing rental costs in Central Florida, we will see this happen to more of our neighbors every day. This is a structural problem, one created by our society. Florida’s real-estate market is expensive, and the recent rise in home prices, mortgage costs and rents is making the problem worse. Combined with our low-wage service industry workforce, we are in the beginning stage of a crisis. Unless something is done to keep people in their homes despite the economic challenges they face, we will soon see tent cities like those in Los Angeles.
I encourage you to contact your state and local government representatives. Ask them to support initiatives to create more affordable housing. Encourage more rent and utility assistance. Short-term assistance can often make the difference between a family living in their home instead of out of a car. These expenses are a cost savings to the government. Colburn and Page Aldern estimate the annual cost of one person experiencing homelessness to a community to be anywhere from $40,000 to $100,000 annually. The authors’ study found that increased public assistance for those experiencing homelessness actually decreased the homeless population, as services made it more likely that people could get back on their feet.
Most of all, please remember that the homeless are not a number, or a nuisance. They are people, often caught in a web of tragic circumstances. I hope that your outreach to your elected officials is matched by your outreach to those who most need it. Talk to the young man on the bicycle. Make eye contact and see those experiencing homelessness as people. Volunteer at a homeless service shelter, give your time to those who most need it. Only by working as a community, and understanding the true causes of homelessness, will we be able to truly make a difference.