United Nations Says U.S. has "Shamefully Neglected" its Homeless

by Shannon Moriarty · 2009-11-13 05:40:00 UTC
Topics: show more

The United States should be hanging its head in shame for violating the international human right to adequate housing, according to the initial findings of a special investigation by the United Nations. After a seven-city tour of the US, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing calls the failure of the U.S. to address the growing housing and homelessness crisis "shameful." But will a shaking finger and 'tsk tsk' from the UN finally force us to embrace housing as a human right?

There's no question that there is a shortage of decent, affordable housing in this country. And it has been well-documented that the homeless population has grown due to our economic troubles. The UN investigation was launched to determine if this perpetual housing shortage and growing numbers of homeless are bad enough to constitute a human rights violation.

Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, toured seven cities over two weeks time, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and several rural communities. Her initial reaction to the tour were delivered in a verbal report to the U.S. State Department. According to the Guardian, she concluded it was "shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing."

Indeed, Rolnik seemed to be most bothered by the whacked priorities of the US, the perpetual favoring of big banks and businesses over the basic needs of low-income individuals."In the US, it's feasible to provide adequate housing for all," she said. "You have a lot of money, a lot of dollars available. You have a lot of expertise. This is a perfect setting to really embrace housing as a human right."

Is it really the perfect setting if we lack the political will, the collective will to view housing as a human right rather than a commodity for building wealth, a commodity that must be earned by those who are most "deserving?"

The US state department has a month to respond to Rolnik's verbal report. She will issue a final written report to the UN human rights council early next year.

Image from the Guardian.

Shannon Moriarty has worked in various homeless shelters and service organizations around the country. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
PREVIOUS STORY:
Poverty--'Prison Without Bars'
NEXT STORY:
Is the NCAA Putting Student Athletes at Risk?

COMMENTS (17)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.