Federal gov't committed $216M to alleviate homelessness last week

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http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article=homelessness_is_not_just_about_housing

Homelessness Is Not Just About Housing

The federal government is pumping unprecedented resources into organizations that help the homeless in innovative ways.
Courtney E. Martin | May 4, 2011 | web only

Homelessness Is Not Just About Housing

(Flickr/iheartfishtown)


Last week, the federal government announced an unprecedented funding commitment of $216 million to programs -- old and new, rural and urban -- designed to alleviate homelessness nationwide. The grants exceed last year's total by $26 million, with more than $16 million for novel approaches.

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It's good and right that our federal leaders are funding the great work of government and nongovernmental organizations throughout the nation, but it's not enough. As Haggerty explains, "We assume that it's the job of not-for-profits or government agencies to handle the issue, and we forget that it's actually the most natural thing in the world to help the people around us if we know what they need."

It's not just the destitute in our neighborhoods and communities who are harmed by homelessness. All of us are degraded by living in a time when the suffering of others is tolerated. It is Karl Marx's "theory of alienation" manifest -- capitalism and its effects strip us of our most natural instincts to do what is right and treat others and ourselves with dignity and respect. It is Hannah Arendt's "banality of evil" incarnate -- we walk on by, listening to the latest hits on our iPod while ignoring that our basic sense of humanity is being violated by our own neglect. It is what contemporary philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah, author of The Honor Code, might call a status quo in need of a moral revolution.

But let's be real. It doesn't take a philosopher's training to see that homelessness is simply wrong. It's one of the first moral contradictions that many children notice as they walk down America's sidewalks, prompting so many parents to scramble for explanations as to why anyone -- in the richest country on Earth -- should have to sleep on the streets. There is no excuse, of course. The federal government has recognized that and mobilized substantial resources. Now it's time that we, as citizens in communities where suffering is still too common, accept our own responsibility as well.

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