Our View of Homelessness is Based on Misconception
The way economically stable people view and discuss poverty is what causes homelessness to become a taboo topic. Homelessness is not an issue caused by the incompetence or laziness of those impoverished its a fault caused by the upper-class hoarding wealth leading to corruption in housing regulations, funding for education, and equitable healthcare for all.
Homeless and impoverished people in the United States are portrayed as leeches to government assistance. There isn’t discussion about why people are homeless or need government assistance to begin with, leading to this misconception that creates a divide between people.
According to The Hechinger Report, in 2018 the wealthiest 25 percent of districts spent $450 more per student than the poorest 25 percent. The children in the lower income communities had a higher chance of dropping out of school due to this economic disparity. These children, according to the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, are 346 percent more likely to experience homeless than those with at least a high school degree.
The issue of district funding is not an individual issue, which directly reflects how homelessness and poverty is not an individual issue. A main reason as to why people tend to be in these lower income school districts is based on the income they are able to make to buy or rent a property to live, whether that be due to their race, marital status, or education.
Another issue that causes homelessness is the epidemic of mental health without equitable health care opportunities. According to SAMHSA, around 30 percent of those who are chronically homeless have severe mental health issues inhibiting them to function to the full mobility expected by society. A study they conducted also found that 60 percent of homeless people have ‘functional’ mental health issues. Without proper access to healthcare most of these people will not heal from their traumas, deeming them as ‘incompetent members of society.’
A major health issue among homeless and impoverished persons is drug abuse. According to the National Library of Medicine, from the overall 30–40% of those drug and alcohol abuse affects, 10–15% of them are homeless. And of course this is on the basis that the reporter was capable of obtaining proper statistics from people who don’t have a stable address and form of communication. These individuals are exposed to drugs and alcohol at an earlier age and higher rate than those who come from more stable and wealthier environments. As stated by the Borgen Project, “poor development fuels conflict, which fuels the drug trade, which fuels conflict, which fuels poverty” creating an everlasting cycle of poverty in these low income communities.
The misconceptions that surround poverty lead to negative connotations of poor individuals rather than the government regulations that keep the economic divide vast in the United States. This leads to higher levels of police brutality to these individuals, higher levels of need based crimes, and even physical abuse brought to homeless people. According to No Safe Streets over the last 18 years 1,769 reported acts of violence have been committed against homeless people, and that’s just the amount of acts that have been reported, not including the ones that haven’t been.
The discussions made around the topic of homelessness are extremely crucial to the way these people are treated. It is made out to seem that as people with education or stable environments of some nature it is impossible to become homeless, but life is not as promised as we may think. Courtland Cobb, a Coming Home case worker, says that “anyone can be homeless, it’s not as far fetched as you think.”
