3.5 + Million Homeless In the Richest Country of the World

Reverend Robert

Did you know  that at any given time that 3 to 4  million adults and children are homeless in America. That’s just about one percent of the population of the land of the free. The population of the United States of America is just over 308 million.  10% of the poor are homeless.

Did you know that one in 50 children in the U.S. are homeless, and with more foreclosures and job losses expected this year, the numbers are likely to get worse.

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3.5+ Million Homeless In the Richest Country of the World (cont’d)

 A new report from the National Center on Family Homelessness estimates that between 2005 and 2006 roughly 1.5 million American children were homeless, according to Time. Researchers included in their definition of homelessness children living with their families in shelters, on the streets, or with other relatives. A similar study found that in 2000 there were 1.35 million homeless children.

Here are some facts that I found on The RunTellmanRun Website. Check out this site and see the AWESOME campaign that they are currently involved with and in participation with Sir Richard Branson of Virgin Airlines. They can use your help to reach their goal  of $100 Million Dollars to Help Homeless Youths. You will see Tellman Knudson is running across America, BAREFOOTED. Thats right it is not a typo he is running across America, BAREFOOTED.

 Recent reports suggest an alarming rise in numbers with estimates of over 2 million homeless youth in the United States annually and a 25% increase in students identified as homeless (National Alliance to End Youth Homelessness, 2009; Duffield & Lovell, 2008).

• Although the prevalence of youth homelessness is difficult to measure, researchers estimate that about 5 to 7.7 percent of youth experience homelessness each year.

• 1 out of every 3 homeless people are under the age of 18.

• The majority of homeless and runaway youth are between the ages of 15 and 17, however three out of 100 runaways are under the age of 10, and 11 out of 100 are between the ages of 11 and 13.

Alarming isn’t it. How can such a great country allow this situation to occur. How is it we can spend 635 Billion Dollars for a year of war, but we can’t put an end to our countries homeless problem. That number 635 Billion was just put before Congress for approval in December 2009 for our updated war efforts and to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanastan. I understand all the concerns of the war, but as most know I disagree with it because I don’t believe in killing. I just see how much money and resources are taken out of our country when there is still so much suffering going on here in our country. I use to belong to a Christian Church that took in almost 100,000 a weekend in donations and all the money that was left over after expenses was sent overseas to help other countries.

As found at Wikipedia.com:

According to the United States Conference of Mayors,^[3] the main cause is the lack of affordable housing.

The four next primary causes are:

• mental illness or the lack of needed services,
• substance abuse and lack of needed services.
• Divorce Courts: Routinely financially destroy the man, and leave him destitute, and tethered to his ex wife via alimony, in spite of the fact that the presiding judge gave her everything. Yet requires him to pay even more. Consequently leaving the man in such a state of poverty, and lack of concern for the individual going through a simple divorce who only wanted justice and fairness.
• low-paying jobs.

The minor causes cited by the mayors were:

• Prisoner release.This one is huge because prisons don’t pay prisoners for their jobs like they use to. Now they get away with paying, for instance in New Jersey,  $1.20 a day x 5 days a week (when most actually work 6 or 7, but only get paid for 5) and they take 30% toward payment of fines. Dinner is at 4pm so come 9pm the prisoner is hungry but conveniently the prisons have a commissary that the prisoners can purchase food and personal items. Well for the prisoner on the low end of the totem pole get’s paid about $24.00 less 30% = $16.00 per month. If he or she spends about 50 cents a day for additional food that leaves the prisoner with about a dollar for two stamps. It has happened numerous times, in fact, time after time again that the prison social worker will set an appointment with the Social Services for a soon to be released inmate to go straight there upon release in order to obtain housing and they get turned down because they didn’t live in that county since before they were incarcerated, even though it is there home town.
• Unemployment.
• Domestic violence.
• Poverty.

It seems as though they overlooked a small but important group that contribute to the statistics and that is; “Disabled Veterans.”

Look at these stats from Wikipedia.com

 Total Number

• As many as 3.5 million people experience homelessness in a given year (1% of the entire U.S. population or 10% of its poor), and about 842,000 people in any given week.^[15] Most were homeless temporarily. The chronically homeless population (those with repeated episodes or who have been homeless for long periods) fell from 175,914 in 2005 to 123,833 in 2007.^[10]

Familial composition^[16]

• 40% are families with children--the fastest growing segment.
• 41% are single males.
• 14% are single females.
• 5% are minors unaccompanied by adults.

1.37 million (or 39%) of the total homeless population are children under the age of 18.^[16]

Natural disasters that destroy homes: hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, etc. Places of employment are often destroyed too, causing unemployment and transience.

There is a portion of everyday, hardworking folks living from paycheck to paycheck that encounter some sort of man made or natural disaster that leaves them homeless and perhaps stuck in the bureaucratic red tape of the local government which leaves them out on the street. There are instances everyday of good people caught in a disaster such as a housefire or a flood that leaves them without the security of having a roof over their head and the loss of all their belongings. ot everyone has the privelage of owning their own home and having a homeownwers insurance policy. Millions of American’s rent their homes and do not have insurance to cover such a rare situation. lot’s of those paycheck American’s cannot simply afford insurance and unfortunately unlike being a homeowner, renters are not required to carry any type of insurance.

Renter’s Insurance is actually inexpensive for the most part because you are only insuring your personal property. The amount of coverage can in some cases with some insurers be as low as perhaps $100.00 annually for 5k worth of coverage. Now let’s get the word out about this. Most lanlords do not even notify tenants of such insurance availability, their only concern is to get the property rented.

Special Thanks to some of our Resources: Jezebel.com; RunTellmanRun.com; Wikipedia,com;

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Tags: Floods, Help Homeless Youths, Homeless, Housefires, Hurricanes, Man Made Disasters, National Center on Homelessness, NaturalDisasters, Reverend Robert, Reverend Robert Ministries, RunTellmanRun, Sir Richard Branson, Tellman Knudson, TheSalesGeek, Tornadoes, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Unite
Posted in Homelessness | 13 Comments »

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