Monday, April 6, 2009

Unemployment: Another catalyst in growing homelessness

The US is facing a wave of homelessness for the first time in decades.
(Photo: Max Whittaker / Reuters)

Scope the Time article:
Monday, April 6 / by Douglas A. McIntyre

Excerpts:
-"The estimates of the number of homeless people in America vary widely. That may be because some surveys consider people who have no home for a night to fall into the category, while others only consider those who live in a chronic state of being without their own shelter. The disparities of measurement yield numbers that are as low at 800,000 and as high as three million."

Most people who have no income will not live in shelters or on the streets. They will move in with friends or relatives. They will only be homeless to the extent that they no long have a place of their own to live and cannot afford one. It is a form of displacement that has not been seen in America since The Depression and one which replaces the government's assistance for the individual back with the social network of the community, whether that is the community of the family or some other close knit network.

-"If the economic downturn is as long or longer than many pessimistic experts believe, it may well lead to a sort of widespread tribalism within the United States that has never been experienced before, at least not in anyone's memory, and that may be imperative to the government's ability to render assistance to people who have absolutely no place to live. At some point, the federal welfare system could become insolvent because of the demands of those in need. The fact that people have bonds beyond their nuclear families may be the only thing that prevents that."

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