dateline: Frazee, MN {Minnesota}
 
• by John W. Dermody ..{Part 2}
 
 
Can you imagine sleeping in your car?
 
In this country, hundreds of thousands do just exactly that every night. They are homeless. Sometimes they are individuals stuck in poverty, but too often multiple members of families huddle together.
 
Sure, some find refuge under bridges, in abandoned buildings, in shelters run by churches or wherever they can get out of the cold.
 
I'm not talking about pulling over for a 30-minute nap halfway home from the Twin Cities in the middle of the night. Or, as some of us have done when 16 years old, collapsing in the back seat of an old Chevy for a two-hour break before pitching peas for another few hours at a rural vinery.
 
According to statistics from Churches United for the Homeless in Fargo-Moorhead, over the span of a year there may be as many as 3.5 million people who become homeless in America. That is 11 percent of the poor population.
 
 
A startling statistic: Each year,
 
5,000 runaway and homeless youth die from assault, illness and suicide. A sad commentary, indeed, when we live in a country of abundance...no matter how much we may be worrying right now about our uncertain economy.
 
About 80 percent of the homeless are in that situation for a short time, and they usually need help finding housing or rent subsidy. A smaller portion {20 percent} is homeless for a long period of time. Permanent, supportive housing is needed in such cases.
 
 
Threat is just around the corner
 
It may be easy for some of us to look askance at the poor, who are often characterized by insulting terms. Remember, most workers are just a paycheck or two away from being in trouble. The future may find more families losing homes, defaulting on loans and balancing on the precipice of poverty and despair.
 
At the end of last week, it was reported that bankruptcies have mushroomed by 30 percent. As I alluded to in last week's "Derm Minute," the greed of overzealous lenders and corporations {including oil firms' gouging} has contributed to driving consumer prices crazy.
 
Does a person pay the house payment, health insurance, the doctor's bill, or feed the family?
 
Such choices are difficult. It doesn't make the average worker/taxpayer feel very confident when moguls with exorbitant salaries {and "golden parachutes"} get bailed out by congress while neighbors lose their homes to foreclosure.
 
When too many problems snowball on folks, some of them become homeless. Yes, some can go to shelters. Ideally, those facilities can be temporary stops for families, keeping them safe. But those aren't "homes."
 
 
Too many homeless veterans
 
Returning veterans are too numerous to count when a roster of the homeless is compiled. The government has not kept promises to military personnel who should be counseled and healed, whatever it takes. And it isn't just military men and women back from Iraq; there are hundreds of thousands of Vietnam War vets who have never received the care promised when they fought for the U.S.A.
 
Every recent administration and each corresponding session of congress deserve to be smacked up alongside their collective ugliness for reneging on promises to our military. There have been too many tales about those who suffer mental afflictions, physical ailments and more. Why haven't they been helped?
 
Political candidates huff and puff but aren't likely to follow through any better. Disgusting.
 
Nothing ever seems to improve in the veterans' health system until a scandal is revealed in a military hospital - and then only temporarily. That happened in the past three to four years. Well, some investigations are needed of Veterans Administration facilities, although some in the Midwest seem to measure up well.
 
Too many vets who are poor, struggling, jobless and sick get just a little help, then get turned out. Some of those end up homeless.
 
 
Changes contribute to causes
 
You've probably heard that Frazee needs more "affordable housing." We are not alone in that respect, but not in the same manner.
 
Over the years, America has seen too few housing units available that are termed affordable.
 
In 1970, there were 300,000 more such units available in our nation than the number of households that actually needed them...a surplus, in essence.
 
In 1995, there were 4.4 million fewer than what our low income population needed. Many people experiencing homelessness work every day, even though there is a myth that folks who struggle like that must be "worthless...lazy."
 
Simply stated, they do not earn enough. A term frequently heard is "underemployed."
 
According to information from Churches United for the Homeless, a minimum wage worker would have to work 114 hours each week to afford a two-bedroom apartment. The agency's statistics come from "HUD's standards for affordability."
 
As of 1999, 4.9 million very low income households paid more than half their income for rent or lived in severely substandard housing.
 
 
Assistance pays off
 
A pair of studies in New York City found that 92 percent of families who exit shelter with subsidized housing placements remain housed two years later.
 
When there is decent help for the homeless, not only do they get the shelter they need, other areas get better for them as well.
 
For example, Connecticut reported a drop in Medicaid costs by 42 percent. Baltimore saw emergency room visits fall by more than 75 percent. Minnesota had a decrease in emergency detoxification days of 84 percent. Seattle's mental health hospitalizations dropped by 89 percent, while arrests and incarcerations declined by 93 percent.
 
State agencies, local governmental units, churches, clubs and many more can make significant strides in fighting homelessness and all the problems connected with the condition, as noted above.
 
Shelter that is adequate and affordable leads to better health, the ability to gain better employment, the opportunity and motivation for improved educational skills and on and on.
 
Part of the solution is money, part is having sufficient volunteers and there is an important spiritual component to the overall effort to help our fellow man.
 
We know what the problems are. Will we face the task of improving the plight of our brothers?
 
We must. And we can do it together.
 
 
About, John {Dermody}
 
A freelance writer and photographer, John Dermody has been a resident of Frazee MN for more than 20 years. His interests include books, politics, education, music, sports and working to improve the community.

 
yeah,, ,and I bet if they get a minimum wage job, the DEMOCRATS will tax them to death so that their money can then go to - "help the poor".
 
OR,,,,,
 
said homeles person call sleep well at night knowing that the democrats are goign to HELP him by raising the taxes on the RICH.
 
love that class envy dems use to hide what they are REALLY up to.
 
Somebody,,, please explain to me how policitans stealing from Joe makes life better for Tom
 
but Dumb-o-crats will swallow that line every time.
 
Obama: " I just want to spread the wealth around".