Sudan has been accused of displacing 1.6 million people from their homes in Darfur. Russia is chided for forcing Chechens in Ingushetia back to Chechnya, where they must now live on the streets. What do these violations have to do with the United States? All three countries are atop the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions list of top offenders.
Although the U.S. has not displaced people from their homes because of ethnic reasons or forced convictions, the fact still stands that our nation is home to millions of house-less citizens, who are criminalized for offenses such as sleeping in public parks. According to the Centre, this violates the U.N. statement of human rights, which includes a standard of housing adequate to promote health and well-being. There is such an extreme stigma against the homeless that most Americans choose to put the issue out of their minds completely.
Subscribing to the belief that the homeless are dirty drug abusers who live on the streets out of choice rather than necessity makes it easy to ignore the sad plight of our nation’s lowest class.
Unfortunately, the tactic of U.S. policy-makers seems to be one of disregard as well. Where were the campaign agendas to reach your neighborhood can-collector? Both Bush and Kerry fervently campaigned for education of the nation’s children, conveniently ignoring the 1.35 million children per year who live on the streets. The No Child Left Behind act didn’t just leave these children behind, it left them suffocating in the dust. Although Bush has put the nation into severe debt through increased wartime spending and tax cuts, his 2004 budget included no new resources for the 3.5 million people living on the streets. Obviously, with numbers like that, current funding is not doing its job.
Accountability is the major problem with funding programs to help the homeless. The homeless are in a cycle in which economics prevent them from seeking out the right to vote, leading to political agendas that do not include their needs and ultimately lead to another generation of homeless who will once again not have a voice in the political sphere. On the other hand, giving money back to the rich is easy: They respond with their contributions and their votes.
Other harmful cycles which often occur in homeless population relate to drug abuse and prostitution. When children grow up without homes, food and access to education or employment, they will be likely to turn to drugs or prostitution in order to make money. Without access to birth control or sexual education services, young people are likely to become pregnant, beginning the cycle once again.
One argument against policies to help the homeless is the idea that people on the streets are there by their own will, and the government is not responsible for them. However, as seen through the occupation and rebuilding of Iraq, the U.S. government has no problem putting money into causes for which it was not directly responsible.
Also, most homeless people find themselves in their situation because of a previous failing of responsibility by the government. Sixty percent of the homeless are single mothers with children, most of which have turned to the streets as their only alternative to an abusive relationship. About 35 percent of the homeless are mentally ill. Although the government has pledged to help both of these groups of people, they are conveniently ignored once out on the streets.
The U.S. is the richest nation in the world, yet is doing less to help its homeless citizens than over 150 other countries. What this nation needs is a strong national agenda against domestic violence, and drug and prostitution policies based on rehabilitation rather than criminalization. Putting tax money back into the pockets of the rich can surely wait. For politicians, ignoring the homeless is easy; people on the streets hardly have the capacity to fight back. It is time for citizens in all classes to remember and recognize the experience of the homeless as a harsh reality that needs to end.

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