Rethink Homelessness, America

Change.org's "Ideas For Change In America" has really gathered steam. With the influx of ideas has come an array of comments and alternative viewpoints. One comment was so off-base, yet so common, I could not pass up this chance to set the record straight. Here is Ashley's comment:

People in this country have every opportunity to be whatever it is that they want to be, so there is really no excuse to not work. If you can't afford a house then maybe you should figure out how to make more money. I have to work long hours to live in my house, you if you can't do it too...well... GET WITH IT!

Indeed, there are many Americans who feel the same way. They work hard, so why can't some others figure out a way to do the same?

Since the 1980s, the cause of homelessness (and poverty, for that matter) has been framed as a matter of individual shortcomings. Mainly, homeless people are too lazy to find or keep a job and can't figure out how to make things work financially.

In reality though, homelessness is the result of broader, systemic issues that affect all of us. Most people who find themselves homeless experience the perfect storm of circumstances that push them into the ultimate rock-bottom.

It is all too easy to accept the romanticized notion of the "American Dream." We like to think that anything is within our grasp: owning a home, finding a secure job with a pension, staying healthy, and having perfect judgement. But this just isn't true. We're all flawed people living in a flawed world. Times have changed. Our incomes have not kept pace with the costs of living. Our workplaces have not adjusted for the post-modern family. Issues of inequality in ethnicity, gender, and socio-economic status create hurdles for millions to "be whatever it is they want to be," (as Ashley put it).

So I ask Ashley, and the many others who share her point of view, to try and forget all of the judgements you have about homeless people. Consider homelessness strictly from a dollars-and-cents perspective:

• Poverty is rampant in America . Today, the richest one percent of Americans earns the same as the bottom 40 percent. All it takes is a missed paycheck, a bout of illness, escaping domestic violence, or any other personal tragedy to provide the final push into homelessness.
• Incomes have not kept pace with housing costs. In the past decade, living expenses have increased 65 percent while incomes have increased 36 percent for homeowners and 31 percent for renters.

If the numbers don't set the record straight for Ashley or any of the others who believe homelessness is a matter of laziness or personal fault, I could share some stories.

Stories about single mothers with young children who work long hours everyday to make ends meet. How cancer, or a bout of depression, or domestic violence, can easily and unexpectedly derail them. Stories about how these parents swallow their pride and move their family into a homeless shelter because they're trying to do what's best for their children.

I could talk about the thousands of men and women who joined the military because they wanted to be a part of something important. How they put their lives on the line and returned home only to realize that the trauma of war was too much to bear.

Or we could talk about youth. How the cards are stacked against children in the foster care system. How our foster care system emancipates youth from the system at 18 and many of these young people are left with few skills, little money, no family, and nowhere to go.

This is the reality of homelessness in America. If you think homelessness is just a matter of not getting a job, you are ignoring the greater systemic problems that are plaguing people everyday.

The shrinking American middle class has growing numbers of people facing poverty, unemployment, and hardship. When will we "get with it" and pay attention to what's really happening?