In the United States, homelessness had grown at a dramatic rate during the last decade. Estimates of the number of Americans currently without a permanent home vary widely. 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 of Housing and Urban Development 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, says Kristen Morris, assistant director of the New York office of the National Coalition for the Homeless, the typical “street person” was a while 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 burn down. About 60 percent of all homeless people live on some form of public assistance with an average monthly income of 210 dollars. About 20 percent are mentally ill. According to Marie Robinson who is lawyer for the coalition for the homeless. “There has been a real democratization of skid row.” All sorts of people have been pushed out of the housing market because of the critical shortage of affordable places to live.
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