"The Astonishing Decline of Homelessness in America"

[applegrove]

The Astonishing Decline of Homelessness in America

by Stephen Lurie at the Atlantic

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/08/the-astonishing-decline-of-homelessness-in-america/279050/

"SNIP............................


It’s equally shocking that politicians haven’t trumpeted this achievement. Nor have many journalists. Yes, there’s a veritable media carnival attending every Bureau of Labor Statistics “Jobs Report” on the first Friday of the month. We track the unemployment rate obsessively. But the decline in homelessness hasn’t attracted much cheerleading.

And what about the presidents responsible for this feat? General anti-poverty measures – for example, expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit -- have helped to raise post-tax income for the poorest families. But our last two presidents have made targeted efforts, as well. President George W. Bush’s “housing first” program helped reduce chronic homelessness by around 30% from 2005 to 2007. The “housing first” approach put emphasis on permanent housing for individuals before treatment for disability and addiction.

The Great Recession threatened to undo this progress, but the stimulus package of 2009 created a new $1.5 billion dollar program, the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program. This furthered what the National Alliance called “ground-breaking work at the federal level…to improve the homelessness system by adopting evidence-based, cost effective interventions.” The program is thought to have aided 700,000 at-risk or homeless people in its first year alone, “preventing a significant increase in homelessness.”

Since then, the Obama administration also quietly announced in 2010 a 10-year federal plan to end homelessness. This is all to say that the control of homelessness, in spite of countervailing forces, can be traced directly to Washington—a fact openly admitted by independent organizations like the National Alliance to End Homelessness.




...........................SNIP"

[Hekate]

1. KnR

[dkf]

2. I had no idea...good for W too. I didn't think he had it in him.

[applegrove]

5. But sequestration may ruin all the progress. The GOP likes the example of pain at rock bottom I

think. During Hurricane Katrina they tried to teach the American people not to care, and it backfired. I'm sure they're up to try to teach cold-heartedness again.

"As quietly as homelessness has fallen, so too it will go up quietly – unless there is major intervention. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that sequestration cuts from homelessness programs are set to expel 100,000 people from a range of housing and shelter programs this year. That’s nearly one sixth of the current total homeless population. Far from gently raising the homeless rate, it would undo a full decade of progress."

[ForgoTheConsequence]

3. Left out the most important part.

As quietly as homelessness has fallen, so too it will go up quietly – unless there is major intervention. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that sequestration cuts from homelessness programs are set to expel 100,000 people from a range of housing and shelter programs this year. That’s nearly one sixth of the current total homeless population. Far from gently raising the homeless rate, it would undo a full decade of progress.

This congress is going to put us back 100 years.

[applegrove]

6. Yes. Thanks.

[bhikkhu]

4. Good article! For more good news on the poverty front:

http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2012/03/extreme-poverty-cut-in-half-world-bank/

Globally "extreme poverty has been cut in half since 1990! Good news is still good to hear, in the midst of all the usual rancor, some programs are working very well, and some things really are getting better.

[Cha]

7. Yes, in 2010 "Obama vows to end homelessness in 10 years" Oh, those Feds..

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled an ambitious plan that aspires to end homelessness among some of society's most vulnerable groups within the next decade.

"Opening Doors," a "Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness," calls for ending child and family homelessness in 10 years while wiping out chronic homelessness and homelessness among veterans in five years.

According to the 74-page plan, "Stable housing is the foundation upon which people build their lives — absent a safe, decent, affordable place to live, it is next to impossible to achieve good health, positive educational outcomes or reach one's economic potential."

The plan is a significant breakthrough because there's never been a comprehensive federal effort to end homelessness with a timeline and measureable goals, said Nan Roman, the president of the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

There's more..
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/06/22/96322/obama-administration-vows-to-end.html

What this says to me is.. GOTV 2014!

Thanks for the OP, applegrove!

[applegrove]

10. Interconnectedness is the way to go.

[Mr_Patriot]

32. Vow

All the more reason to vote against the Reaganomics/Repukeblican agenda.

[sheshe2]

8. K&R!

[freshwest]

9. Thanks applegrove. You see so many things others do not, and bring it here. Kudos!!

[applegrove]

12. Oh I go to Reddit, Business Insider, Huffington Post, Twitter or some other amalgamation site.

Somebody else had already decided it was a good article and put it up for me to find. The interconnectedness of the internet rocks. But thanks.

[Recursion]

11. It's one of those things like murders being down 50% in 20 years

It's in no advocacy group's interest to declare the crisis over, so it gets swept under the rug.

[JayhawkSD]

13. Maybe in the Atlantic...

or on the east coast or something, but not in San Diego. The number has gone up, and many of the homeless are veterans. We now are keeping shelters open year raound. Almost every street corner has a panhandler.

[nomorenomore08]

14. Oh, the situation's still appalling, don't get me wrong.

But apparently not quite as bad, nationwide, as it was 10-20 years ago.

[Left Coast2020]

15. Yes. It still may be a big issue in many communities.

Just saw Senator Brown from Ohio on Ed Show taking on homelessness for Vets. I think the figure he threw out was 62,000 or so, but still too many if its more than one.

I think the housing dowturn in 08-09 had a part in this too--at least from what I vaguely remember in news accounts.

[limpyhobbler]

16. Maybe the homeless are just dying. They have been getting kind of old.

The laws have been getting tighter making it harder for them to survive, pushing them out of places where they used to squat, and stuff like that. Maybe it's killing them?

Also the front edge of the population bubble is in it's 60s now. Maybe the homeless baby boomers are dying because it's hard out there on the streets if you're old.

[fasttense]

17. I think they are hiding them.

Laugh if you will but I recently saw where they were bull dozing dozens of homeless people's shelters in California and there are laws on the books to chase out homeless from many cities. Then there are the restrictions on feeding homeless people in places like Florida. So, homeless folks are getting more crafty in where they set up there shelters.

I think the Obama administration is relying on numbers that are poorly calculated.

[Poll_Blind]

23. Which would not actually be the craziest thing in the world to suggest, given the...

...administration' cooking the books of jobs numbers, fast food jobs and other exceptionally low-paying jobs, to give the indication that the economy is on rebound.

PB

[KansDem]

18. Of course, prison populations have skyrocketed...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States

Check out the Federal prisoner and Private prisoner populations, from 2000 to 2010:
Federal: 124,540 to 173,138 = 39% increase
Privately-owned: 9,381 to 25,201 = 169% increase

[bhikkhu]

28. The total numbers give an increase of 1% a year

which is a lot still, but its hardly "skyrocketing".

[OnlinePoker]

29. On a positive note

The number of juveniles in lockup has dropped by over 30,000 in the same period (from the same link).

[BlueJazz]

19. !, like some other DUers, believe the stats are in error. A lot of cities across America have been

....doing their best to hide the homeless by destroying places where the homeless have been known to live and hang out.

Plus the fact that the prison and jail population has grown to a ridiculous percentage of the populace points to the homeless being
"Hidden" alright...in the woods, fields outside of town and/or in jail.

[jtuck004]

20. Should also consider the link below - because homelessness is _mostly_ for younger people.

Our population is ageing, and homelessness is a "young person's game" as it states in the study, and only partly because of mortality as people age.

http://www.eastwestcenter.org/events/seminar-declining-homelessness-in-the-aging-us-population-demographic-perspective

So the efforts above have had some impact, but demographics may well have a greater one.

[hamsterjill]

21. If this is correct, I will be very happy.

But it's not what I'm witnessing on my drive home every day. I see more and more people walking with backpacks and shopping carts full of belongings. Not students. I can tell the difference. But people who have everything that they own in life on their person while they are walking.

There has also been a big increase in the number of people begging at stop lights, etc.

I'm not trying to knock your science, etc., and again, I hope that homelessness is going down overall. But I don't think it is decreasing in my own particular neck of the woods. I think it is increasing.

[PowerToThePeople]

22. I see plenty of homeless daily.

I do not have numbers. If appearances relate to reality, it does not appear to be going down in my area. In fact, I know of one family personally who are homeless now. They were not a couple years ago.

I also have recently seen what appears to be a family living out of their early 80s SUV (bronco or blazer type rig.) It is full of stuff in the back and there are 2 adults and one baby. I have seen the vehicle parked in various areas around town over the last couple months. One time I saw the mother changing the baby on the tailgate.

[Diego_Native 2012]

24. I see that alot here in San Diego.

Many living in vans or RVs...some even in subcompacts. They'll go on like that until their tags expire or they get a ticket for no insurance and their car gets towed away leaving them on the side of the road with everything they have left. Locally, Ocean Beach is about to pass an ordinance against parking your RV on a public road overnight so they can force these people out of the community. Residents, of course, can purchase a sticker that will let them park their RVs on the road...but not transients.

It's my view that living in a car is detracting from the overall homeless numbers as I never see any statistics from our local homeless resources about this population.

[Alamuti Lotus]

25. I see more homeless daily--the triumphalist author can take that "astonishing decline" and shove it

There's a cottage industry that is just desperate to trumpet "how great the economy is", but these arguments are built upon columns of salt: washing away at the first trickle of water.

[lcordero2]

26. ok when am I going to get accurate news

It doesn't tell how many people are in shelters.

[maxsolomon]

27. Anecdotally, this is bullshit

this summer in Seattle has seen numbers of street people unmatched in my 22 years here. literally every vestibule on a building smells like piss or has someone sleeping in it. i rarely walk a downtown block without seeing a raving schizophrenic talking to no one.

[99th_Monkey]

31. I quite agree. Same in Portland. nt

[99th_Monkey]

30. Counting homeless people is like counting shy phantoms

It's like trying to count -- in a given ONE night -- how many black cats
there are on the streets of New York City. Good luck.

THIS ^^ together with the fact that I think their are FAR LESS resources
and effort going into the annual count; not to mention a dubious seriousness
about genuinely WANTING to know how many homeless people exist in a
given town, on one given night.

[Scurrilous]

33. K & R