Homeless... in America. Are you okay with that?

Is it just me or do most people agree that it is more than a touch shameful that we have a very significant homeless problem in America? With the highest GDP in the world, one would think that America could do better in this area. Don't get me wrong, there have been people and efforts that have done good work in this area, but overall, I think we are losing this fight.

Why? Well, I would point to two main reasons -

First, the over-simplifcation of our mental health programs and policies. It seems to me that for decades we took a much too guarded and strict approach to this issue, institutionalizing far too many people and treating these people as complete outcasts from society. In an effort to cut costs, many states, like here in Michgan, closed almost all of the state mental health hospitals and put many people in precarious positions. The liberals may have looked at this as redemption for all of the seemingly bad deeds of the past (lobotomies, electric shock treatments, outcasting of the mentally ill, etc.) and thus may have allowed these type of cost cutting efforts to be taken too far. For now we can see that many of these people that were in these state facilities that needed continuing assistance with their mental issues have become approximately 50% of the homeless problem in America.

Second, the cuts in funding that deal directly with the problem at hand - HOME-LESSNESS! Yes, NOT having a home is the problem. THIS is the problem for the other 50% or so that are homeless. So one solution is to build more affordable housing. So, how should we do that?? Hmmmm,, well we have this federal group called the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Perhaps they could provide affordable housing and thus provide some serious relief to the issue of homelessness. Perhaps if we had leaders that had any faith in OUR Governments abilities to be effective, then this would be a viable answer. Our current version of Compasionate Conservatives believe that smaller government is the answer to all our prayers and in general, want to de-regulate and un-fund everything shy of the military. Since 2001, our federal government has shifted funding and outright cut funding to HUD. They have countered their critics by stating that they (HUD, fronted by Bush Crony Mel Martinez, who will do whatever Bush and his admin wants him to do) have provided additional funding to Homeless assistance. But this funding is targeted to homeless shelters and NOT to building affordable housing (which is what HUD is suppose to be doing). So, ask yourself this, would you prefer a new or a second homeless shelter in your city, or would you prefer two or three mixed income (including low and mid income, i.e. not poor only/"projects") family developments in your city?

To put this all into a different perpective , did you know the following??

- The Iraq war is costing the American taxpayer 1.6 billion dollars a week or 83.2 billion per year, however in contrast, the proposed HUD budget is 28.5 billion dollars.
- Despite America's superpower status economically and militarily, this country has the highest poverty rate and the lowest success rate in reducing poverty out of all industrialized nations.

Are you proud of these two facts above?? Should we go on and on, cutting taxes, cutting social services and reducing the size of government down to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub (as some conservatives would like to do). Should we just let people suffer until the religious and charitable organizations come forth and "do what they are supposed to do" and help these people? Are we to forget these Americans and write them off as simply lazy, unproductive and useless?

Today is MLK day,, and in his spirit, I have a dream. A dream where all of america realizes and believes that many people in america need and deserve our help. And that we can ill afford NOT to provide that assistance to those that, for whatever reasons, have found themselves in lesser positions than the rest of us. That every american who wants a home can find a decent home and that America never again holds the top spot in the list of industrialized nations that have not, can not and will not provide enough to help its own citizenry.