Good morning. The discussion topic for today's seminar is “Homelessness in America” In the United States homelessness has grown at a dramatic rate during the last decade. Estimates of the number of Americans currently without a permanent home vary wildly. Advocacy groups like the National Coalition for the Homeless say that close to 3 million Americans live on the streets or in emergency and temporary shelters. The US department concerned puts the figure at 350,000. Yet both bureaucrats and advocates agree on one point, that is, the face of homelessness has changed radically in the past 10 years, as more and more low-income housing is mowed down in the name of progress. Some 20 years ago, the typical “street person” was a white male who suffered from a mental illness or an addiction to drugs or alcohol. Today's homeless, however, are a more eclectic group. More than 60 percent of the homeless today are Black, mostly single mothers with small children. More than half of them have never been homeless before. In many cases, they have been evicted from their homes, or the low-income housing in which they lived was demolished or burmed down. About 60 percent of all homeless people live on some form of public assistance with an average monthly income of 450 dollars. About 20 percent are mentally ill.
All sorts of people have been pushed out of the housing market because of the critical shortage of affordable places to live. As a result, homelessness has climbed to the top of the “me-generation's” short list of social concerns. But there is a great gap between concern and active involvement in the effort to solve this growing problem. For many people, the inaction is due to ignorance, not indifference.
The fact is that there are many ways in which individuals can help the homeless. Yet for those people truly interested in the cause, one of the first steps is to get to know the homeless and understand how they became that way. Many advocates believe that it is important for middle-class people to get to know and reach out to the homeless and bridge the gap that exists.
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