homelessness

So this was sent to me, about statistics of homelessness in America and Georgia. I, well, being me, kind of ripped it apart. No ill will toward the person who sent it to me, actually I care deeply for them and don't wish to see them get overtaken by scare tactics.

Well, I decided to post up here for y'all. The red are my comments to the bullet points. So enjoy, take which ever viewpoint you wish.

Homelessness in the USA & Georgia

Why Are People Homeless?

Two trends are largely responsible for the rise in homelessness over the past 20-25 years:

· A growing shortage of affordable rental housing

· A simultaneous increase in poverty (National Coalition for the Homeless) These go hand in hand. More people are in poverty needing more affordable housing, therefore reducing the number of affordable housing.

Other factors contributing to homelessness:

· Foreclosures – 32% jump in the number of foreclosures between April 2008- May 2009. Six million jobs have been lost since the start of the current recession. (National Coalition for the Homeless). this is the back lash of the mortgage companies lending to people who cannot afford it, of course with pressure from the democrats saying everyone should have the right to own a home. yes people have lost their jobs in the recession, but a good chunk of people sold their homes upsidedown to make ends meet while looking for a new job

· Poverty – In 2007, 37,300,000 million people in the U.S lived in poverty. Children are overrepresented, composing 35.7% of people in poverty while only being 24.8% of the total population. (U. S. Census Bureau). i live way! below the poverty line, the poverty line goes up according to the number of children a person has...and well, most of these women have more then 3 children so their poverty line is about how much you make now

· Eroding Work Opportunities – With unemployment rates remaining high, jobs are hard to find in the current economy. Even if people can find work, this does not automatically provide escape from poverty. the eroding job market are the entry level jobs requiring a college degree. those who have worked for years and made lots of money and are put out of work are taking the entry level jobs, while those who qualify only for entry level jobs are going back to college, like myself, to earn higher degrees to compete with these long timers for entry level. BUT, folks trying to escape from poverty only have a high school or GED diploma and only qualify for hourly rate jobs, but (i've seen first hand) they rather collect from the government that pays them more than hourly pay.

HomeStretch clients typically rely on public transportation to get to work. Many available jobs are not

accessible by public transportation further reducing their opportunities for gainful employment. in atlanta, this is true. the public system does suck, but people find away to get around to fun activities, they can find away to get to jobs. many jobs that are jobs that poverty level folks qualify are on transit system lines, though. Every Walmart, Target, Kroger, (and i'm listing the jobs that pay a better hourly rate up to salary) is on a transit system line, sometimes it takes one or two bus changes to get there, but it's available.

· Decline in Public Assistance – Extreme poverty is growing more common for children, especially those in female-headed and working families. (Children’s Defense Fund and The National Coalition for the Homeless, 1998). what is this trying to say? there is no public assistance for children? if so, that's a load of crock. Dept. of Family and Children Services is the largest, but there are hundreds, just here in the metro atlanta area, that help poverty stricken children. also, this is from 1998.... so has this declined from 1998 or is this the stat used in 1998? I worked for DFCS in 2003-2005 and there was more than enough public assistance

· Lack of Affordable Housing – Since 2000, the incomes of low-income households has declined as rents continue to rise. (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2005). rent is based off income. here in atlanta Affordable Housing, Housing Choice, Section 8, Public Housing whatever it wishes to call itself, has changed from giving people a free place to live with out putting any rent towards the place. Now, it is a sliding scale according to income. even then, rent for a two bedroom apartment is no more than 400 dollars a month.

Additional factors include:

· Lack of Affordable Health Care medicaid, emergency heatlh, free clinics ALL for FREE for poverty and homeless

· Domestic Violence - this i whole heartly agree with, there needs to more programs for women to leave an abusive husband, there are programs in place and the batterwomen's shelters are well hidden from the husbands, but sometimes too hidden from the women needing them

· Mental Illness this is unfortunate, b/c a large number of homeless are mentally ill and do need help, the services above only can help so much

· Addiction Disorders that's your own damn fault, why should I as a tax payer pay for you to live when you spent your own money on drugs? if you are hungry enough you will spend it on food. of course these assholes are reasons for crime and home invasions. still there own damn fault for getting to that point.

How Many People Experience Homelessness Over a Period of Time?

· A study conducted in 2007 by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty states that approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness 3.5 million is only 1% of the national population....not as bad as people what to scare others into thinking that tomorrow they can be homeless

in a given year.

· 19,095 – unduplicated count of homeless persons in households in the state of Georgia (HUD 2008). in 2005 there were about 3.32 million Households, not population in georgia, so of those homeless households is .5% yep not even a whole percentage of households in georgia that are homeless

· 6,840 - unduplicated count of homeless persons in households in Atlanta, Roswell, DeKalb, Fulton Counties (HUD 2008). 1% of atlanta's population is homeless which should be higher than the state, b/c it is the largest city and homeless people stick to the most populist city due to handouts and access to things listed above

Additional Statistics and Mythbusters (Metro Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless)

· Atlanta is the poorest city in the US for children- more children live in poverty than in any other city. we are on par with the national level, so how does this make us the poorest city for children? is this the "any other city" in georgia? or is this any other city in America? if it is Georgia, I've already listed the reasons why Atlanta has twice as much homelessness than the rest of the state. As far as America, what by a fraction of a fraction of a point that still is less than 1%? scare tactics

· 48% of all children in Atlanta in poverty live in families with annual incomes of less than $15,000 a year. is this income the income from welfare? or is this the income that a family makes on their own while the other 30,000 comes from welfare? and yes it is 30,000...add up rent being paid, TANF paychecks, Food Stamps, and Medical Bills all paid by the government it adds up to 30K and if you have more children this number increases. kind of why I quit DFCS with my 21,000 gross pay salary

· For children under age 6 living in female-headed families with no spouse present, the poverty rate is 58.8%. 75% of HomeStretch client families are headed by single moms. how many of these children have different fathers? of course there is no spouse present, the women don't marry and have multiple children with multiple fathers

· 40%-60% of homeless people work. so where does their money go? where's the bullet point for what poverty and homeless spend their own working money on?

· Minimum wage in Georgia is $7.25 per hour, which yields $15,080 per year, before taxes. that's pretty damn good, if you want a higher paying job, get a higher degree, can't because of children, then should have thought about that before having children

· HUD says you should pay no more than 30% of your income for housing (30% of minimum wage yields $452/mo. for rent). this stat comes from that sliding scale of rent i was speaking about earlier this is NOT people who are not on the welfare roles should base their own housing on, if that was the case then EVERYONE can claim they need to be living in public housing.

· The average two-bedroom apartment in Roswell rents for $850/mo. (which is 30% of an annual income of $34,000 or hourly rate of $16+ per hour). Thus, you need to earn $16+ per hour to afford that apartment, according to HUD. HomeStretch clients earn about $10 per hour on the average. yeah, and to get a 34K job requires a college degree. also the last part of this bullet point.... minimum wage is 7.25 per hour and the homeless poverty people they pulled from make and average of 10 dollars an hour...so the people we are even speaking about make an average of 3 dollars MORE than the state minimum wage?

· 46% of the jobs with the most growth between 1994 and 2005 pay less than $16,000 per year. and what about the growth of jobs and the salary from 2005 until 2010? can't use statistics of 2008 and 2009 then use the income state from over five years ago.