Thank you Alan Greenspan and George W. Bush, and while we're at it, thanks to all the economics geniuses who got us into this mess and all those free-traders who cost the US so many jobs.
Our economy is imploding, and the effects have been noticeable for some time to those who cared to look. All the happy-happy talk about low unemployment and the robustness of the economy has rung hollow for many, many months.
The poor and those right on the edge of poverty are usually the first to feel the effects of a worsening economy, so the figures for 2007 on homelessness and "food insecurity" coming from the U.S. Conference of Mayors should come as no surprise to anyone who hasn't been buying the government's propaganda.
According to its annual report on hunger and homelessness,
- requests for emergency food increased in 4 of every 5 cities, with the median increase being 10%
- 13 of 19 survey cities said they could not meet demands for emergency food
- across all cities, an average of 15 percent of families with children looking for emergency food must be turned away
- 9 in 10 of the cities sampled for details on the urban hunger crisis say they expect increases in food requests next year
- the average duration of homelessness was 6 months for families and 5 months for individuals (down from the previous year's 8 months)
- nearly 1 in 4 shelter stays were by members of family groups
- cities reported increases in households with children seeking transitional or emergency shelter
- despite the addition of thousands of beds for the homeless in the survey cities, half the cities reported turning away people some or all of the time
According to last year's report, a third of adults seeking emergency food were employed, and 23% of requests were simply unmet. There's little reason to think that things improved for 2007, given that food banks sent out desperate appeals for resources as the year waned.
Foreclosures, inflation in food prices, lack of affordable housing, high medical costs, and the high cost of fuel have all exacerbated the problems of homelessness and hunger in urban areas. In many cities, "tent cities" have sprung up spontaneously or have been established by charitiees or local government to provide shelter for the homeless (just Google "tent city" in Google news). In the latter case, the high increase in the number of homeless has overwhelmed more permanent shelters. And sometimes, as in Ontario, California, spontaneous tent cities have been taken over by local governments, often in partnership with local charities, in order to provide safety and services. Remember the Hoovervilles of the Great Depression? Perhaps we'll be calling them Bushvilles ...
We're going to see many more homeless people as the foreclosure crisis deepens, as jobs are lost (see the Bureau of Labor Statistics' "The Employment Situation: December 2007," and then read Mike Shedlock's commentary and analysis for a better understanding of that situation), as energy and food prices increase, and as the cost of health care continues to skyrocket.
It is unconscionable that the plight of the hungry and homeless is completely absent from our political discourse. We hear a lot about saving the middle class, but nothing about those who live in poverty. A study conducted by Penn State researchers in 2005, "An Atlas of Poverty in America: One Nation Pulling Apart, 1960-2003," found that of the 35 million people in the US living below the poverty line, 7 million are employed but unable to earn a living wage. In 17 states, 50% of workers have incomes below the poverty line. The stereotyping by the right wing about the poor being lazy and unwilling to work is simply not true; most of those who aren't working are children, the elderly, and the disabled. But we're going to see an increase in both the unemployed and in the number of working poor as the economy continues its decline and inflation takes its toll.
Without even the recognition that poverty exists in this nation, how will we address these problems? Where will we find the political will to address hunger and homelessness when our so-called leaders never mention them or seem to know these conditions exist in the United States?
Who will speak for the poor?
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