We see a blocky image in a dingy doorway. We avert our eyes. Under a bridge a circle of people scrounge for blankets in the bitter cold. We accelerate our car to avoid viewing their pain. We are speaking of America’s homeless.
A newly released study brings their tragedy home to us. The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness reports a 20 percent increase in our nation’s homeless population in 2009, largely because of the economic recession. In Georgia, more than 75,000 people are living day-to-day, without homes or suitable shelters. Sixty percent of those human beings are children. There are more than 1.5 million American youth without homes in the world’s wealthiest country.
Homeless children are more likely to experience health problems. They are also less likely to graduate from high school. Indeed, maintaining daily survival is their immediate, most important, goal.
Our veterans of the armed forces, particularly those coping with mental and physical health issues, make up another significant segment of the homeless population. They also need our help and the dignity to be treated with equity and social justice. After all, they put their lives on the line in our service.
Many of the newly homeless are in that unfortunate circumstance for the first time in their lives. As home foreclosures mount, renters and persons with Section 8 vouchers for housing become prone to the dire prospect of homelessness. As high unemployment rates continue, the average citizen is moving ever closer to homeless status.
We need to reach out to homeless people in Georgia and across America. They typically live in harsh conditions beyond their choice or control. We have not created social policies that adequately address their needs or circumstances. We should no longer avert our eyes, shut out our ears or close our minds to their plight. If we do, it is a shameful indictment against us as a nation and a state.
A potential first step is to contact the Georgia Coalition to End Homelessness at www.gahomeless.org. That organization assists in providing information on transitional housing, emergency shelters and employment opportunities. But it is only an initial entrance into a world that we have neglected for far too long. Let the walk into that world at least begin.
