Homeless in America Today

Homelessness: A still-Important issue Homelessness is not just a housing problem. As noted by PLoS Medicine "there is a substantial prevalence of mental disorders among homeless people in Western countries. Among prior studies meeting criteria for consideration, the prevalence of alcohol dependency ranged from 8.1% -- 58.5%, and drug dependence ranged from 4.5% -- 54.2%. For psychotic illnesses, the prevalence ranged from 2.8% -- 42.3%, with similar findings for major depression." Homelessness is an issue which is dealt with on federal, state, and local levels.

Federal policies such as healthcare reform can impact the ability of people to receive treatment for substance abuse, for example. State and local ordinances can impact access to affordable housing, how drug crimes are prosecuted, and whether it is legal to panhandle or even to offer assistance to the homeless. The plight of the homeless was thrown into sharp relief recently when the city of Fort Lauderdale recently passed a law to make it more difficult to feed the homeless, ostensibly out of health and safety concerns.

The city "cited two Christian ministers and volunteer Arnold Abbot, 90, who runs the advocacy group, Love The Neighbor… They each now face 60 days in jail and $500 fines" (Goldberg 2014). On a state level, however, Florida ostensibly has policies which promote policies to help the homeless.

For example, the Florida Department of Children and Families has a specific division known as the Office on Homelessness which "was established as a central point of contact within state government on homelessness." The Office works to coordinate resources to help the homeless and compiles statistics on the issue but it cannot specifically dictate how cities such as Fort Lauderdale will deal with the homeless.

However, the policy of the Office is lacking in some instances, not simply because it cannot guarantee that the Office cannot prevent individual cities on the local level from legislating in a manner which can be very harmful to the homeless, such as was the case with the 'no food'-dispensing law in Fort Lauderdale.

Also, its specific focus on children, while commendable, does not take into consideration the many adult categories of homeless, such as veterans, persons suffering from drug addiction, and people who are mentally ill, all of whom may not have children and thus not fall within the direct oversight of the Office. The NASW acknowledges that homelessness is a multifaceted problem and affects a wide range of people, all of whom have very different reasons for being homeless and thus may have different needs.

This may span the gamut from teenage runaways, families with children, rural families who have lost their family farms, veterans, and other vulnerable groups. The organization strongly stresses the need for affordable housing to help homeless populations of varying demographics and the need for specifically targeted legislation to address individual needs. While of the Office of Homelessness in Florida is uniquely targeted.