National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week: A Rant and A Revelation

Each November, one week is dedicated to raising awareness about the hungry and homeless among us. 

Call me cynical, but condensing such a systemic and devastating issue like homelessness into just one tiny week of "awareness" hardly seems like it's going to move us closer to any real solutions. I mean, where is our national conscious the other 51 weeks of the year? What's more, the week is shared with two other "national awareness weeks": bullying awareness and geography awareness (assuming we all have maps...).

If you ask me, every week going forward should be deemed National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week until each man, woman, teen, and child in this country is safely housed and financially independent. 

To be clear, it's not that I am undermining the value and importance of the awareness and service activities that are taking place this week. These lectures, sleep-outs, and can drives are extremely important. In fact, shelters and food pantries will probably get a much-needed boost in donations this week. That alone makes me pause and reconsider my rant... but only for a moment. 

Here's the big idea: housing plays a crucial role in our lives. We identify with the places we live. Housing keeps us safe, healthy, and rooted our communities. It's connected to our schooling, our social networks, and even our opportunities in life. And so the implications of NOT being housed, of not having a home, are devastating. 

We know that homelessness has increased dramatically across the country. We know that foreclosures are displacing people everyday, sometimes without notice. We know that homelessness disproportionately affects veterans, children, and minorities. We know that the gap between income and living expenses has become so vast, that millions of people are just one or two paychecks away from becoming homeless themselves.

But we also know that it doesn't have to be this way. We know that if we make eradicating homelessness and providing housing a national priority, then we can find the resources to achieve these goals. Consider the Iraq war and the $700 billion bailout... money (or credit, perhaps) is always available to fund our national priorities. 

Every week should be National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week because we all have a vested interest in ensuring that every person in this country is safely housed with food on the table. An interest that should extend beyond this one week in November. 

But then, one week is a good start. If just one person feels a call to action as a result of this week, we're making progress. If one person calls their elected representatives and asks for homelessness to be a priority, that's progress too. We must recognize that real progress in ending homelessness will require leaps and bounds. These small steps, however, are also moving us in the right direction.

Alas, my idea probably won't hit the floor of Congress for a vote anytime soon. So I will use this little corner of the interweb to capitalize on the good will of the masses this week. Who knows, perhaps we can spur a little grassroots activism while we're at it!

Stay tuned... five days, five ways to get involved each day. So don't just sit there... DO something!