The United States of America is often referred to as "the land of the free" or "the greatest country in the world." But for people who actually live here and see tens of thousands of men, women, and children walking the streets everyday with no home to go to, it is hard to believe that people could even categorized this country with a name so impressive. I agree that homelessness is not a problem just of the United States it is one of the world and we must work together to find a way to solve it. (1).
In many ways, homelessness represents a new social problem. Excluding during the time of the Great Depression, women and children have never before been on our nation's streets in such significant numbers. During the 1980s, cutbacks in government benefits attached with rapidly increasing rents and a scarcity of low-income housing jeopardized the stability of all people on reduced or fixed incomes. As a result, the nation's population of homeless families swelled from almost minor numbers to nearly 1.4 million. In the United States, 3.5 million people experience homelessness during the course of a year. Families are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population, accounting for almost 40 percent of the nation's homeless. (3) What still confounds many Americans, however is why homeless appears to have become an unchallengeable socio-economic condition in this nation, such that our children may not know an America without it. Most of us can agree that America has a strong economy, jobs are available so why doesn't the "American Dream" work for everybody? (8).
As easy as it seems it is also frustrating that our political leaders in both the White House and Congress have shifted away from the need to address the systematic causes of homelessness and focus nearsightedly and simplistically on the individual responsibility of those who become homeless for the misfortune deemed to be of their own making.