The New Faces of Homelessness and Getting Things Right

The recently completed
U. S. Conference of Mayors spent time deliberating about homelessness in the nation's cities.

Unfortunately, there's lots to discuss.

Many factors drive the harsh reality that is the growth of homelessness in our urban areas.

Here's a fact to chew on this holiday weekend: an individual or family working full-time and earning minimum wage, or receiving assistance under the Supplemental Security Income or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs cannot afford a one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartment at the fair market rental rate as established by the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

In other words, people can work full-time and still not be able to rent a decent place to live.

The mayors also reported that requests for shelter made by families with children went unmet 32 percent of the time during 2004. Families with children is the fastest growing segment among the homeless population of the United States. In Dallas, Texas, most all homeless families must break up at night if they choose to stay in one of our local shelters.

During the next 12 months, a minimum of 3.5 million persons will experience homeless. Forty percent (1.4 million) of these will be children.

One very practical step that could be taken to help relieve this tragic situation, especially for families with children, is for the President and Congress to restore full funding to the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher program. Even better would be a public policy decision to expand the program to take in thousands of additional families.

The beauty of the Section 8 voucher initiative is that a family with a voucher can move anywhere in the city they call home where an apartment owner will accept vouchers as payment. The family pays up to 30% of their income and HUD pays the property owner the balance.

The outcome is win-win. Family members work. Private property owners keep their apartments filled. Family life is stabilized as fathers, mothers and children are kept off the streets.

At present, as a result of executive decisions made inside HUD, the Section 8 program cannot serve all of the families who need it. In Dallas the waiting list for a Section 8 voucher is well over a year. The list contains thousands of names. The story is the same in every major city in the nation.

Studies have demonstrated the clear benefit of the voucher program to the health and education of young children as compared to those who do not live in a household receiving this housing benefit.

If we truly care about the pressing needs of a growing population of homeless families, expanding the voucher program provides a clear plan of attack that will have immediate impact.

At the same time, such a move would bolster a very "soft" rental market in many American cities. Again, an economic and community win-win scenario.

So, what's the hold up? Why the problem?

I am convinced there is afoot in our nation today, a mean-spirited, harsh, anything-but-compassionate worldview that simply turns its back on the poor, even when the proposed solutions emphasize personal responsibility and accountability all around.

There is a very pragmatic, operational bias at work against the poor today in the United States.

People of faith who embrace the ancient values of our various religious traditions need to demand better of our nation and of its leaders.

This is a matter of national morality.