Why the current solutions are not working, and what the government can do instead
By: Charlotte Garrity
In our own state of Massachusetts, there are currently 15,507 people who have no house to sleep in. Some are near us in the Cambridge and Boston area, and others are spread out across the state. Across America as a whole, homelessness remains apparent. There have been federal programs designed to fix this crisis and protect homeless people from natural disasters; however, certain specialists have pointed out that many solutions are not truly fixing the issue. Leaders are currently approaching the homelessness crisis either unsustainably or ineffectively, preventing many people from finding a permanent living situation.
Statistics show that California, Vermont, and Oregon have the greatest numbers of homeless people in the U.S.. One prevalent reason for the growing number of homeless people in these regions is increasing housing costs. It is simple causation that, as housing costs increase, so does the homeless population. On a single day in 2023, 653,104 people reported being homeless in America. This number is increasing and brings light to the lack of success current programs have seen. The government’s main focus has been housing-first programs—which prioritize providing homeless people with permanent housing—but they do not provide lasting effects. There has only been a 10 percent decrease in the homeless population since 2007. In comparison to the level of funding and government attention that has gone towards this national issue, these numbers are just not equal. For this reason, the government must take other measures to help people prevent homelessness.
A graph displaying the steady increase in homeless people in America since 2016. https://www.security.org/resources/homeless-statistics/
Though it may seem that homelessness has become so embedded into American society that there are no alternative routes the government can take, certain proposed solutions look promising. For example, the National Alliance to End Homelessness has brainstormed five problem-solving strategies for the American federal government involving a rapid re-housing program. This program involves short-term rental assistance regardless of sobriety, income, or the presence of a criminal record. Research proves that programs like these actually work by lessening the time that homeless people are unsheltered. Other solutions include nationwide assistance to the most susceptible people to a housing crisis, as well as designing stronger crisis response programs. As the homeless number continues to increase in this country, the federal government must consider these solutions and implement them immediately.Current programs have proven to be ineffective in solving homelessness. Leaders must consider alternative solutions for this crisis and decrease the number of unsheltered people in America, especially in heavy zones such as California, Vermont, and Oregon. The larger agencies focused on this issue, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, must take responsibility and try new approaches, such as the rapid re-housing program to protect the hundreds of thousands of people in this country that are susceptible to homelessness. Homelessness presents an overwhelming crisis for the country. But with proper initiative from the federal and state governments to find long-lasting and effective solutions, we can solve this crisis.
