Homelessness: Should the United States Do More?

Abstract

On any given night more 744,000 people are homeless in the United States, approximately 98,000 families. More than 40 percent of those who are homeless have served in the armed services and close to 30 percent are children. While the federal government has implemented various policies and programs designed to address homelessness, aggregate data suggests the number continues to rise. Homelessness, like most adverse social problems can have long-term costs to society. This paper moves forward on the premise that homelessness is a complex and multifaceted social problem and, if left unchecked will have devastating consequences on society at large as well as the fiscal health of the nation. The rationale for this hypothesis is that adverse social conditions, such as homelessness, require government and society to address problems associated with the problem. For example, research suggests there is a correlation between homelessness and poor health, poverty, hunger and a multitude of adverse social problems. All of these problems require government to expend resources. Historically, evaluations of the factors contributing to homelessness have focused on individuals and their inability or unwillingness to embrace main stream values, good work ethics and the adoption of self destructive behavior which leads to poverty and homelessness. This study examines the causes of homelessness in the United States from a social, structural, institutional and systemic perspective. This evaluation focuses on social policy, the structure and philosophy of social programs, unemployment, mental illness, housing shortages and economic conversion as contributing factors to the growing homeless problem. The pressing questions addressed in this evaluation are; should government do more to address homelessness in the United States and, if the homeless population is permitted to grow, relatively unchecked, what are the true costs to society?

Keywords: homelessnes, social policy, social spending, child poverty, poor familes, homless families

JEL Classification: A1, Z00, Z1