Homelessness Due to Unemployment Today\'s

Homelessness Due to Unemployment

Today's buzzword seems to be crisis. Having emerged in the real estate sector and in the context of the credit crisis, the financial challenges soon made their presence felt in all domains. As a result, organizations engaged in multiple strategies with the aim of reducing costs. The most common such course of action has been organizational restructuring through downsizing operations. Countless U.S. citizens lost their jobs, and unable to make payments to the houses purchased, they were executed by the financial institutions. As a result then, the unemployment rate and the number of homeless people exponentially increased throughout the past few months. The official unemployment rate is of 7.6%, following a constantly ascendant trend; the actual rate, considering those so discouraged who stopped their search for jobs, could be around 14% (Fraser, 2009). In Los Angles for instance, 1 out of 10 people is unemployed, the statistics reaching the 1983 peaks. The overall economic status is also impacted as the national gross domestic product decreased to its minimum value since 1982 (Pierson, 2009).

People have been out of jobs for months, even more than a year even, and they find it extremely frustrating to constantly receive letters of refusal from the few interviewing companies. And sadly enough, the economists foresee no real improvements in the near future (Simon, 2003). The loss of jobs implicitly leads to the inability to make the mortgage payments. Banks, suffering the massive consequences of the credit crisis, now no longer reveal flexibility and treat all situations alike. Whenever the borrower is late on the contractual terms of the payments, the bank will take over his house and sell it in order to recuperate the losses. Fact is however, that the prices of the real estate properties have went down so much that the financial institutions are unable to sell the houses to a value near to the credit loaned. The former owners are still left in the street and see how the American dream can soon turn into a nightmare. They become homeless, meaning then that the financial crisis not only increases the numbers of homeless people, but also forces us to look at the problem from a novel standpoint. "As more and more people lose their jobs and homes in the worsening global economic crisis, experts say the face of homelessness is changing" (Daily News, 2008).

But the contemporaneous economic crisis is only a stimulator of homelessness, and in order to best address the problem, its root causes must first be identified. Throughout the past two, two and a half decades, the most prominent reasons to be blamed for homelessness include increasing levels of poverty and the growing prices in the real estate industry, for both purchases and rentals. "Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income, that must be dropped. Being poor means being an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets" (the National Coalition for the Homeless, 2002).

Statistics of federal agencies revealed however, that throughout the past few months, the number of middle-class professionals and families seeking refuge in the state shelters has drastically increased. In the Los Angeles County for instance, former lawyers, pre-med students, real-estate agents, business owners and other highly educated professionals lost their jobs and homes and are now homeless. The Burbank Temporary Aid Center has for example registered a 66% increase in demand for shelter over the past twelve months. Half of this increase is due to middle-class professionals who are now experiencing homelessness for the first time in their lives. Throughout the entire country, with 250,000 millionaires, at least 73,000 people are homeless on any given night; out of them, 40% are women and children. In the Los Angeles Unified School District, 35,000 children are homeless, 35% more than last year. During an average night, only 12% of the homeless people in Los Angeles are able to find shelter. The rest sleep on the street or in vehicles. The risks of doing this have drastically increased as the attacks on homeless people have tripled in the recent past. Some incidents even ended with the death of the victim (Daily News, 2008).

Homelessness is a severe social problem that must be addressed starting at its core. Individuals must be offered equal opportunities to develop and become educated and professionally formed. The state has to create a sustainable economy that is able to employ and remunerate all citizens. Despite these efforts, fact remains that homelessness among middle-class professionals, those who benefited from development opportunities, is constantly increasing. The immediate resolution to this matter can only come with the allocation of sufficient budgets that allow for the sheltering of the tens of thousands of homeless Americans. Sadly however, these resources are limited and most of the national income seems aimed at economic revival, with a decreasing focus on societal issues. A temporary fix could come from understandings with various sponsors that could financially support homeless people and shelters, in exchange for tax deductions. The feasibility of such a proposition is however questionable as the state may depend on its tax income to revive the economy and may not be willing to renounce it.