Could we spare some change?

Over the centuries the United States has struggled with fixing an issue
that continues to be overlooked. This issue is homelessness. Being homeless
seems not to only affect those that are without a home, but their family and
friends that love them as well. Maybe the question you are asking yourself is
why you should care about the homeless, when it doesnt directly affect the
life you are living but what if it is affecting your life, and you just dont
know yet? What if more homeless citizens means higher state taxes or
healthcare premiums, would you care then? What if more homeless means
higher crime rates in your neighborhood? What if the issue of homelessness
hit home, and instead of a stranger asking you for spare change it became a
close friend, brother, sister, or your father? Where do we draw the line to
jump start your impulse to address the issue of homelessness.
Have you ever wondered why hospitals bills are always so expensive?
A study done by the Center for American Progress (CAP), finds that most
often the cost of the unpaid medical bills from uninsured patients get
transferred to their insured patients. In result this affects those that hold
health insurance by making premiums higher each year. In this article by
CAP there is a quote by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island
Democrat, This is the hidden tax we all pay for our failure to insure all
Americans. Many of these uninsured are homeless that raise this hidden

tax this is all Americans that cant afford, or qualify, for any form of health
care assistance.
I talked to a homeless man named Bryce. Bryce is my father, and he
has been without a stable home for almost three years. I asked him how this
happened, how he became homeless. What Bryce said was, I just couldnt
pay my bills anymore Bryce is a victim of circumstance, although he owned
his trailer that he lived in he did not own the land it was placed on. For his
home all he paid was the lot rent, which is the money that was payed to the
person that owns the property that his house sat on. Bryce lost his job
because of mentally instability after witnessing a tragic event. After losing
his job he hoped to be able to use his savings to get by until he found a new
source of income. Unfortunately finding a job was much harder than he
anticipated. Bryce fell more than six months behind on payments, and was
evicted from the property. He never told a soul until it was too late. I asked
him why he didnt reach out to someone, and I expressed how I could have
helped if I had only known. He replied, I was ashamed. I was ashamed to
have my kids take care of me, when I didnt take care of them. My father
and I have never had the best relationship, but we always managed to stay
in touch after the years of my parents divorce. Bryce never dreamed of
becoming homeless but it was caused as a result of his m0ental health and
resulting addiction issues.
) My father turned to a homeless shelter) In Ogden Utah a homeless
center called St. Annes Center was the place my father turned to. He says

there are a couple people that, once a week, visit the homeless there. When
they visit in the winter they bring hot chocolate and hand warmers to help
them through the coldness of Utah weather. St. Annes has a 90-day stay
policy meaning that no one person can stay longer than 90 days. Sometimes
they are able to extend the 90 days depending on the situation of the
individual that is homeless but no longer than six months. After receiving
three extensions, Bryce had hit the six month mark and had to leave for
several weeks before he could go back to St. Annes Center. Most shelters
help with trying to get permanent housing for those that stay there, but
Bryce was denied due to his criminal background. My father is not the only
one that has been denied help due to a criminal record.
Some say poverty and crime go hand in hand. There are many articles
with statistics that support this fact. Poverty may be correlated with crime,
but isnt there crime everywhere? An article, Poverty and Crime, states
that in areas with higher density of people living in poverty have higher
crime rates, but they also suggest that there are many other factors. In this
article they look into how poverty affects crime and have found that
unemployment, population density, minority population, age distribution, and
where you are living will affect poverty. So it seems that poverty itself is also
a victim of life circumstances. Being poor doesnt mean you stop wanting
things that cost money, being poor just makes it harder to obtain the things
you need. Most people living in poverty work hard for the money they
receive, and do live within their financial means. Nevertheless, there are

some individuals that find an alternative way of getting whatever they

desire. To some it is easier to be a criminal than it is to be an upper class
citizen.
Utah has managed to drop the percentage of homeless population by
the Housing First program. (Lain) The Housing First model is a program that
provides a place to live for anyone in need of housing. To some although, this
may seem like a free giveaway of a house, but let me explain the benefits of
this free home giveaway of a home. One of the positive impacts Housing
First has is that is lowers the cost of what the state spends altogether on the
homeless. (Lain) Utah alone spends about $20,000 per homeless citizen, and
in 2011 the annual report on poverty reported having 16,000 plus homeless
citizens in Utah alone. So just imagine that the state gets so much they can
spend on homelessness and in 2011 they spent around $360,000. This
includes the medical and jail cost of the homeless. After the Housing First
program the average annual cost dropped to $8,000 per homeless person,
and this includes a home as well as an assigned caseworker. To me, giving a
place to live to someone in need seems to be a good option. Give them a
home then deal with their mental health needs, Samantha Lain quoted in
her article, How Utah Reduced the Homeless Population by More Than 90
Percent. It is easier to get someone that has a mental illness or a medical
issue healthier if they are able to know where they are staying.
Maybe the question you are now asking yourself is why we should just
give them a home if they put themselves in their current situation. How

about first ask someone that is homeless how they became homeless,
because there seems to be this misconceived stereotype on homeless people
that they made the poorer choice in life or they are addicted to drugs/alcohol
and this is what caused the loss of their home. Although this may be the
case for a certain percentage of the homeless population it is not the story
for the entire population. Portland Rescue Mission wrote, 10 Myths About
Homelessness, and this is number five on the list. The quote, No one starts
life with a goal of becoming homeless. People lose jobs and then housing.
Women run away to the street to escape domestic violence. Many people
have experienced significant trauma and simply cannot cope with life. There
is more to become homeless than you may think, and we need to not judge
someone on the stereotype provided by others that are ignorant of the
situation. There was an article published by the National Coalition for the
Homeless in 2009 named, Why Are People Homeless. In this published
article it breaks down the percentage of why the people have become
homeless. While rates of alcohol and drug abuse are disproportionately high
among the homeless population, the increase in homelessness over the past
two decades cannot be explained by addiction alone. What I took from
reading this quote is that being an addict seems not to leave someone
homeless, but being on the verge of becoming homeless it can drive
someone to become more of an addict.
Healthcare has a huge impact on people that are living in poverty and
the homeless. In the same article, Why Are People Homeless it states that

one in three Americans are uninsured. I know this article was published in
2009, but it had good information on how some individuals become
homeless. Medicaid is a program that assists people that are in need of
medical coverage, but you need to qualify for it. It seems if you have a
disability, and/or kids, your chances of qualifying are much higher than if you
are an individual with no dependents and no disabilities. The crushing wave
of medical bills can push someone that is barely scraping by financiallyinto
homelessness.
Going to the doctor if you are homeless can be scary. Some homeless
citizens dont actively seek out medical attention, and more times than not
the only way that they see a doctor is by passing through the doors of the
emergency room. Imagine cutting yourself on a rusty piece of metal. How
would you go about treating it? Go through the steps of cleaning and
dressing the wound, and maybe the call to the doctors to get a tetanus shot.
Now put yourself in a homeless persons shoes. How would you clean a
wound without accessible clean running water? Would you make the daring
journey into a store to be judged by others because of your appearance?
Then the dressing, how would you dress the wound? I think that we take a
simple first aid kit for granted. This situation may be just hypothetical to us
but it is real to someone that is homeless.
Homelessness affects everyone in one way or another whether it be
personally, financially, emotionally. The poor you will always have with you,
as stated in a verse from the Bible. We establish here that we will always

have poverty; that will never change, but what can change is the way that
we react, and address the homeless population. There is no fix or cure for
being homelessness as a whole, but what we can do is help homeless people
individually. Being homeless doesnt make someone less important or
human, it just makes them more vulnerable to the elements.

Blake Taylor. "Economics.fundamentalfinance.com." Poverty & Crime.

Economics.fundamentalfinance, 2006. Web. 07 Dec. 2015.
<http://economics.fundamentalfinance.com/povertycrime.php>.
Fourth Street Clinic. "Fourth Street Clinic | Salt Lake City, Utah - Health &
Homelessness." Health & Homelessness. Fourth Street Clinic, 2011. Web. 07 Dec.
2015. <http://www.fourthstreetclinic.org/get-educated/health-homelessness>.
Kingsbury, Kathleen. "Do Your Premiums Help Cover the Uninsured?" Time. Time
Inc., 25 Mar. 2009. Web. 07 Dec. 2015.
<http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1887489,00.html>.
Laine, Samantha. "How Utah Reduced Homelessness by More Than 90 Percent."
Christian Science Monitor. 04 May 2015: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 26 Oct.
2015.
National Coalition for the Homeless. "Why Are People Homeless?" National Coalition
for the Homeless. National Coalition for the Homeless, 15 Dec. 2011. Web. 07 Dec.
2015. <http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/why.html>.
Portland Rescue Mission. "Myths About Homelessness." Portland Rescue Mission.
Portland Rescue Mission, 2011. Web. 07 Dec. 2015.
<http://www.portlandrescuemission.org/learn-more/myths-about-homelessness/>.