Understanding

I read a story the other day about how those of us that need some help, can't afford to live in the low income homes being built around the country. As the cost of living goes up so are the rents for these lifelines. Private companies still use them as profit centers while public facilities can't get vouchers from the feds to cover the costs. It is another in our good idea gone bad world.

I am hardly an expert on how to deal with this overwhelming problem in our country, hell, around the world, but there are a few things that need to be pointed out for clarity. It seems to me that we are trying to solve our problem with a one size fits all approach to it. There are multiple levels and layers that we need to separate starting with the categories of homeless.

We have families, veterans, the mentally ill, kids, and those homeless with pets. There are more but this covers most and they have different needs from each other.

Many of these low income housing facilities have rent starting at around $400 - $450 per month. This seems pretty reasonable until you start to do the math. I read and hear many people say, "just get a job and you can afford the rent." Guess what? You can't.

Say you are able to get yourself a minimum wage position. Forty hours a week times four weeks equals 160 hours a month, times $7.25 per hour, (minimum wage in most places), comes to $1160. Now subtract 15% for taxes and that brings you down to $986 per month. Oh, wait, I forgot union dues that most minimum wage jobs require so let's be generous and only subtract $20 for those and that brings your total per month down to $966. Looks good so far but wait.

$966 minus rent of $450 is now $516 minus utilities of $85 equals $431. Subtract insurance and gas of $340 and you are left with $91 to eat, clothe, and incidentals for yourself. Have you been to a grocery store recently? It costs at least $100 a week just to walk in there. There is no way minimum wage supports you living in any low income housing and that is if you don't have any kids.

And by the way, those $450 a month rentals are not in California, New York, Texas, or any of the other primary locations with the biggest need. What is low income to some is out of reach for others.

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As of August first we have about 746,000 homeless in our country. California and New York account for almost one third and when you add in Washington, Texas, and Florida we are at almost 40% of all homeless in those five states. There just isn't enough places to house those that even want to be housed. Keep in mind that at least 10% don't want to go into shelters because they fear for their safety.

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There are at least 20 - 25% of homeless with some mental health issues. That is almost 150,000 - 190,000 people, that we know of, and how many others have slipped under the radar? Of those, 35% are women. 40% are under 35 years old.

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Our men and women of the military, who have proudly stepped up and served our country represent 4% of all homeless, nearly 30,000 vets. This is a success story. Those numbers are down by 55% since 2010 when the government decided to finally do something to help the bravest among us. Sadly 13,500 of them remain without shelter, 41%, either by choice or circumstance.

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The streets are filled with children, with and without their parents. Many of the parents are either drug addicts, prostitutes, or mentally ill. The kids, in many cases, are the ones that are tasked with finding food or shelter for the families and are sadly vulnerable to abduction and trafficking.

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Finally, there are estimated to be more than seventy million homeless pets on our streets. Even more sad is that almost one million of them are euthanized each year because shelters have no room for them. Many of them end up in shelters because low income families are not able to bring them into housing or shelters with the family. Imagine having to make the decision to turn your pet over to an agency, where they likely will be put down, because the place you are trying to get into for your safety won't allow you to bring them in with you. Why?

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A few years ago I suggested using old military bases that were being abandoned as places to house some of our homeless. Instead the government allowed them to either be torn down or fall into disrepair. Same for malls no longer being used, hospitals, and hotels. We could have helped so many people and families by not only housing them, but giving them the chance to fix them up which would have given them confidence and self respect. Instead, we have allowed them to stay on the streets where we call for them to be thrown out. Where do they go?

We have so many things to fix in this country and homelessness is just not something that people want to see or hear. It is uncomfortable, misunderstood, costly, and embarrassing for us and too many of us just want them to go away. Out of sight, out of mind.

This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, this is a humanity issue. These are our neighbors, family, friends, coworkers, that have suffered unimaginable hardship that has led them to this desperation. Remember when we used to say, "there but for the grace of God..", why have we forgotten that, and them?

We need our government, local, county, state, and federal, to put together a committee of people that actually know what the hell they are doing, and come up with a sensible and reasonable plan to help our people. It needs to be focused on each group and their needs and abilities.

It needs to include allowing their kids and pets to stay together. It needs to figure out how to give people a place that they can afford, or for free until they can get back on their feet, so that they can have a reasonable quality of life, safely. It needs to have the support of all of us without the usual name calling and finger pointing for fault or blame.

We can do better people. This is a tough issue that calls for tough solutions but we have done more with less before and there is no reason we can't figure this out together.