Roman said a lack of affordable housing is the leading cause of homelessness in USA (apartment complex, to rent)

[Need_affordable_home]

Roman said a lack of affordable housing is the leading cause of homelessness in USA. Wow this is sad! But its all too real. Most of those homeless people do not need to be homeless if they relocate to a cheaper city. I would be homeless if I stayed in (south) Florida as there really isnt any houses for less than about $150k and I wouldnt be able to afford even a condo right now. Lots of homeless people in south Florida and especially CA due to high costs of housing. My brother reported that there are very few homeless in north Florida as houses are considerably cheaper.

Instead of those homeless on the streets begging, they should get any job they can, even if min. wage and save up for a down payment on a $10k to $20k house elsewhere and a one way plane ticket to relocate there. The federal min wage should now be $7.25 an hour, enough to get homeless people into affordable houses which can be found in several states. They cant be too picky about a nice house, any house is better than none.

I for one dont want to be homeless. I currently live with parents and once I save enough for a house, I am leaving Florida and buying an affordable house. I have several states and cities on my list as options where to relocate to. No one should be homeless in my opinion, do you agree?


http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/n...-homeless.html

[CandyApple]

How is a homeless person supposed to relocate? They probably can't afford it. If they could save up for a plane ticket, they could probably afford a place to live where they are. How are they supposed to research places to live? Do they have a computer with the internet? What if they do move? Now they're not only homeless, but in a city they're unfamiliar with. What if they want to live where they are, but just not on the street? Why should a person have to move to another city or state just to be able to afford a place to sleep? That's terrible.

Also, it's better to be homeless in California or Florida than Pennsylvania, I'd think. At least you wouldn't freeze to death there. And if one has been homeless, odds are they wouldn't be so naive as to think it wouldn't happen again. Someone's not going to move someplace cold for cheap rent if they're afraid of being on the street again.

Instead of telling people to move somewhere else, why don't we make the place where they live... livable?

That said, yeah, I'd prefer to go somewhere cheaper when I move. The less spent on rent/home ownership, the better. And do you mean the minimum wage IS $7.25, or will be, or you think it should be? Last I checked it was still 5 something.

[JPT]

You all fail to realize that the definition of homeless is the following:

"having no home or permanent place of residence"
-Encyclopaedia Britanica

In the context of that definition, I know and am friends with homeless people whom I have worked with and who live in my town. What needs to be clarified is that "homelessness," for many Americans, brings to mind someone sleeping in the subway in Philly or someone living in a cardboard box in Manhattan.

While I am not denying that there are MANY homeless people in this category, there are also many others in what could be classified as a transient sort of homelessness. Returning to my experience, one of my friends, for personal reasons (often a domestic dispute causing separation) is now homeless. However, this does not mean that this person does not still have an existing social network, which can be tapped for support if need be. This person lives in her car, but routinely calls upon relatives and friends to use the toilet, launder clothes, and so on.

Another friend could also be classified as homeless in that he has no permanent address. He simply wavers in between the apartments of relatives, significant others, and friends, residing where he has the least tension with a particular person that week.

The previous post mentioned that the homeless would not have access to internet resources as readily as a permanent addressee. Under the context I have proposed, many of these people, as long as they have an existing social network, indeed do have access to these resources. For example, the homeless person who lives in her car knows me, a person who has access to the internet.

For my homeless friends, I know that their main issue revolves around poor management of financial resources and perhaps poor relationships. If they only would better-manage their incomes (however meanger they may be), they could resolve their issues.

I'm not so sure I agree that lack of affordable housing causes homelessness. What about income-based housing? Is it not set up to directly benefit the working poor, where homeless persons usually fall, category-wise?

Also, consider mobile home parks. There are about six in my town. These communities are usually the least expensive, yet my town still is rife with homelessness and transcience. If affordable housing is all it take to alleviate homelessness, then why does it proliferate in areas that offer both goverment-subsidized housing options, as well as inexpensive market-based options such as manufacture housing, mobile home parks, older downtown housing-stock, etc.

Surely South Florida has such options available. I visited my ex-girlfriend who lived in Pompano Beach, FL about a year and a half ago, and she lived in a moderately priced apartment complex, amid all the golf-courses and beach-front property. I don't recall how much she paid, but it wasn't astronomical by any means.

[dullnboring]

If one is homeless, their chief concern is finding shelter period, not finding their own single-family home to purchase. As such, assuming they're starting out with next to nothing to their name or in their wallets, their best choice in finding housing as soon as possible, is to rent out a room in someone's home for only a fraction of the cost of buying a home, and then IF they're interested in buying a home, save money up while living in the rented room.

Similarly NAH, I doubt you'd be homeless if you were to stay in South Florida. You have money saved up so you'd simply be renting as opposed to buying.

I also second the idea that it's much better to be homeless in a warmer climate than one that gets cold in the winter. Anyone familiar with Los Angeles knows that one of the reasons the homeless migrate to Santa Monica is due to the pleasant oceanside weather; well, in addition to their very liberal laws regarding homelessness.

[gizmo980]

Yes, lack of affordable housing is one cause of homelessness, but there are many other reasons... here are some statistics, from the center for mental health services:

People who are homeless frequently report health problems:

* 38% report alcohol use problems
* 26% report other drug use problems
* 39% report some form of mental health problems (20-25% meet criteria for serious mental illness)
* 66% report either substance use and/or mental health problems
* 3% report having HIV/AIDS
* 26% report acute health problems other than HIV/AIDS such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, or sexually transmitted diseases
* 46% report chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or cancer

People who are homeless also have high rates of other background characteristics:

* 23% are veterans (compared to 13% of the general population)
* 25% were physically or sexually abused as children
* 27% were in foster care or institutions as children
* 21% were homeless as children
* 54% were incarcerated at some point of their lives
http://www.nrchmi.samhsa.gov/facts/facts_question_2.asp (broken link)

DullnBoring made a few good points - one being that they're more concerned with daily needs than purchasing a home, and the other that they are better off in warmer climates. We have a HUGE homeless problem in San Francisco, partly because they flock here for the weather. Of course it does get pretty cold here, and last night they actually sent out "task forces", to try and convince them to head to shelters. They opened a bunch of temporary shelters this week, since we're in a bad cold snap (it's about 29-30 degrees right now)... I watched a report about it on the news, and many of the people refused help b/c they're more comfortable on the street. One guy they interviewed said he's been on the streets for 14 years, and considers it his home. There was another guy in a wheelchair, who had refused shelter the night before, but finally accepted & let them take him somewhere... he was shivering, and literally had icicles coming off his beard, so it was a matter of life & death.

Anyway, my point is that it's not as simple as providing a place to live! Many of them have serious issues, that go way beyond affordable housing... after all, I know plenty of poor people who manage to find a place - even here in the Bay Area. Not saying it's the homeless' "fault", just that it's a complicated situation. Sad, but true.

[SandyCo]

The homeless population in L.A. County is over 88,000. Many of these are substance abusers, mentally ill, or physically ill (or a combination!). Have you heard about the illegal dumping of hospital patients on Skid Row?! There were people still wearing hospital gowns, with the IV pole and drip, right there on the streets!

How many of us are only one or two paychecks away from being homeless ourselves? I know I am. (Well, if it got that bad I would use my 401k, but still...)

I'm only one bad illness away from homelessness, since I don't have another wage earner around to pick up the slack if I don't have an income.

Also, do you know how difficult it is to move anywhere or find a new job if you don't already have a permanent address? How do you meet with a realtor if you can't even take a shower? How do you keep up with your cell phone bill if you've probably lost your job along with your home?

I'm not saying that the homeless are completely hopeless and helpless, but the very things we take for granted each day are what they are struggling for. It's a hard life, especially because many people assume the homeless persons's own fault that they're homeless. Blaming someone who is in that situation isn't exactly helpful.

I helped a friend who was homeless once, but in her case she did have another option. Her brother offered to help, but she would have had to move to San Diego, and she was dead set against leaving L.A. I got angry because she was more than willing to incovenience me and her other friends simply because she didn't want to take her brother's help.

Obviously, I'm talking now about the true homeless people, not the transient ones who can crash on a friend's couch or whatever. If I were homeless, I'd be thinking of the quickest, most expedient way to get myself back into an apartment of some kind. I certainly wouldn't be thinking of moving away to another city, with an entirely different climate and a new set of rules! Homeownership would never even occur to me. That would seem as attainable as colonizing Mars!

[green_mariner]

Originally Posted by JPT

You all fail to realize that the definition of homeless is the following:

"having no home or permanent place of residence"
-Encyclopaedia Britanica

In the context of that definition, I know and am friends with homeless people whom I have worked with and who live in my town. What needs to be clarified is that "homelessness," for many Americans, brings to mind someone sleeping in the subway in Philly or someone living in a cardboard box in Manhattan.

While I am not denying that there are MANY homeless people in this category, there are also many others in what could be classified as a transient sort of homelessness. Returning to my experience, one of my friends, for personal reasons (often a domestic dispute causing separation) is now homeless. However, this does not mean that this person does not still have an existing social network, which can be tapped for support if need be. This person lives in her car, but routinely calls upon relatives and friends to use the toilet, launder clothes, and so on.

Another friend could also be classified as homeless in that he has no permanent address. He simply wavers in between the apartments of relatives, significant others, and friends, residing where he has the least tension with a particular person that week.

The previous post mentioned that the homeless would not have access to internet resources as readily as a permanent addressee. Under the context I have proposed, many of these people, as long as they have an existing social network, indeed do have access to these resources. For example, the homeless person who lives in her car knows me, a person who has access to the internet.

For my homeless friends, I know that their main issue revolves around poor management of financial resources and perhaps poor relationships. If they only would better-manage their incomes (however meanger they may be), they could resolve their issues.

I'm not so sure I agree that lack of affordable housing causes homelessness. What about income-based housing? Is it not set up to directly benefit the working poor, where homeless persons usually fall, category-wise?

Also, consider mobile home parks. There are about six in my town. These communities are usually the least expensive, yet my town still is rife with homelessness and transcience. If affordable housing is all it take to alleviate homelessness, then why does it proliferate in areas that offer both goverment-subsidized housing options, as well as inexpensive market-based options such as manufacture housing, mobile home parks, older downtown housing-stock, etc.

Surely South Florida has such options available. I visited my ex-girlfriend who lived in Pompano Beach, FL about a year and a half ago, and she lived in a moderately priced apartment complex, amid all the golf-courses and beach-front property. I don't recall how much she paid, but it wasn't astronomical by any means.

To me, not having a permanent place does not constitute homelessness. Having no place to sleep at night or having no roof over your head, or a guaranteed roof over your head constitutes being homeless. You may not have an "address" in the since of a permanence. Many cases like being in the military may warrant lack of a permanent address.

[Chicago60614]

Umm, a vast majority of homeless people are homeless for many other pressing issues other than they can't come up with $1,100 for their mortgage.

Many are mentally ill, or have alcohol/drug dependencies. There are many other factors as to why they're homeless other than "get a job". People who are clear headed, want to have a home, and don't have all these other things dragging them through their lives normally will find a way to get some sort of job and put shelter over their heads.

It's not like homeless people are out on the streets cause they're just too lazy to bother working. A rational person would obviously decide that any sort of job is worth affording even a crappy apartment in a bad neighborhood.

[censusdata]

Louisville, KY has some of the affordable housing in the US and still has tons of homeless peolpe. You can get a shotgun house on the bad side of the tracks for $15,000

[Chicago60614]

^ you can buy houses in Detroit for a few hundred dollars. some that are actually pretty large for a few thousand. It's all about the areas they're in, and that most people strip the copper wiring out as soon as they're abandonded