Rick Raw: Burgeoning Homelessness in America a National Disgrace–Part of W’s Shameful Legacy

By Rick Grant rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

As America’s catastrophic economic crisis worsens, many more former middle-class citizens have been forced into homelessness through rapidly declining financial circumstances. Just today I read a story about a 67 year-old woman, Barbara Harvey in Santa Barbara, California who was laid-off from her job and lost her condo. It hit me hard because her misfortune could happen to me.

Three quarters of Barbara’s income went to paying for her residence. Forced out of her home, she couldn’t afford to rent an apartment on her social security income. With no where else to go, Barbara has to live in her small Honda car with her two golden retrievers. She managed to find a part time job at $8.00 an hour, but the income from the job plus her Social Security check are not enough for her to afford any other living arrangements.

Since it is illegal to sleep in your car in California, a non-profit organization called New Beginnings Counseling Center, which is a homelessness outreach program, secured twelve parking lots so women like Barbara could park their cars and spend the night in their cars safely from 7:00 pm to 7:00 am, seven days a week. The fact that New Beginnings needed twelve parking lots to accommodate all the homeless women is a sad commentary on our fractured economy.

Homelessness is growing exponentially in America as the "slowdown"( recession) worsens. I hold George W. Bush responsible for his disastrous economic policies and the nine trillion dollar national debt degrading our financial resources.

Today, the thousands of middle class people who have been downsized or fired in the surge of corporate cutbacks are finding it difficult or impossible to find jobs. Soon, they can’t afford their houses or apartments and are forced onto the streets. Many of these proud people end up living in their cars. They are not bums, drug addicts, or alcoholics–they are you and me.

Like Barbara, I lost my job I’d held for 24 years as a journalist for a weekly publication The national downturn in the economy and the Internet revolution caused the magazine to close its doors. Fortunately, my wife’s and my Social Security incomes plus our pensions from past employers, enable us to just squeeze by every month. I do some freelance work but the pay is pitiful and the jobs are scarce. At least I have a roof over my head. However, we are but a disaster away from the street.

Yes, there is something rotten in America. The real estate crash, a credit crisis, a broken health-care system, and a declining job market have left middle-class Americans out in the cold. Our priorities are skewed. We can spend billions fighting a winless war in Iraq, but we can’t help our middle class recover from forced unemployment and homelessness. It’s an unconscionable scandal that goes against our basic human rights principles.

No one in America should have to live on the streets or in their car. The government–either local or Federal-- could construct low cost pre-fab housing or provide non toxic trailers for the homeless in the acres of unused real estate scattered around every city. The numerous abandoned homes could be used to house the homeless instead of sitting empty and becoming unlivable eye-soars.

Our country gives millions to other countries in foreign aid, when there is great need here in the homeland. We only have to examine the long-term aftermath of the devastating Katrina hurricane in Louisiana and Mississippi to see how our government reacts to major disasters. In Baton Rouge, Louisiana there are still eighty thousand people camped out in toxic FEMA trailers. The government only gives out medicine to alleviate the symptoms of the airborne toxins in the trailers, instead of providing safe trailers.

Wake up and demand change. Fight back with proactive political involvement. It’s our government. They work for us. Change can only happen when large numbers of people get involved with our representatives in Washington. If not, we’ll see more parking lots filled with people living in their cars. It’s part of W’s shameful legacy.