Has the United States failed its homeless population? Many Americans are a paycheck away from becoming one of the many who ends up on the streets. What are the causes of this problem in Atlanta? And who is affected by this problem?

Why are many Americans facing this problem?

And what can we do to change it?

Unemployment

Reasons are to why homelessness exist include stagnant or falling incomes and less secure jobs which  offer fewer your benefits. Declining wages intern have put housing out of reach for many workers. In 2007 a survey performed by the U.S Conference of Mayors found that 17.4% of homeless adults in families were employed while 13% of homelessness single adults or unaccompanied youth were employed.

Veterans

According to Green Doors, about 53% of individual homeless have disabilities, combine with 41% of homeless non-veteran individuals.

-Half suffer from mental illness

-⅔ suffer from substance abuse problems

-And many from dual diagnosis (a person who suffers from both mental illness and substance abuse problems)

-56% of homeless veterans are African American or Hispanic

Domestic Violence

These people often have nowhere to go. Cut off from their abusers and/or their families financially and sometimes suffering from mental illness and emotional trauma, getting help can be a long and lonely struggle. A report from the Georgia Department of Community Affairs says due to a lack of shelter space, 4020 homeless victims of domestic violence were denied shelter in 2013.  

Mental Illness

Mental illness is often the cause–and the effect–of homelessness. It is no mystery why the mentally ill are often unable to support themselves. What is not so obvious is why treatment is not available for them.  We do not have statistics specific to the Atlanta area at this time; however, nationally, approximately 25% of the homeless suffer mental illness, according to Green Doors.  

Various Other Reasons

We do not mean to simplify the many causes of homelessness into these four.  Every homeless individual’s situation is different. Loss of property, re-entering society as a convicted criminal, substance abuse, and various other reasons can lead to men, women, and usually children just like us to lose their homes and join the crowded streets.

The Solution

Many witnesses to homelessness respond with the argument “There’s nothing I can do.”  Is there truth in this statement?

This is a rather pessimistic attitude. By caring enough about a problem to come up with a solution, people throughout history have made change: if we can send someone to the moon, we can give one person a home. Although taking every single homeless person off the street may only be a dream without a great program which can overcome the obstacles of funding and bipartisan disagreements, there are steps that we as individuals and as a community can take to make an impact in reducing the numbers of the homeless and lessening its devastating effects.

Edwards Powers put it like this: homelessness is like a staircase. Homeless people have fallen down those stairs and are trying to find their way back up. Whether we stand in their path or walk up those stairs with them is our decision.

In order to get back up we as a community have to help. If we don’t help the homeless than we will not progress. In order to make a stable Atlanta and United States, we should all contribute.