Director's Desk from the October 17.
Street Roots has been covering issues related to the economic collapse, specifically the housing market and the details behind faulty policy for years. It’s not surprising to now see many of the same stories covered in Street Roots echoing across the front pages of daily newspapers throughout the country. “Family loses home, living in tents,” “Loss of jobs and financial meltdown lead to homelessness,” etc., etc.
The realities plaguing the U.S. economy play out on the streets of America everyday. Local governments around the country continue to hold on to the idea of 10-year plans to end homelessness. Politicians continue to drive home messages that affordable housing is being created for the thousands of individuals and families losing everything. But many of us know it’s not that simple, or even close to being true.
We know that far more affordable housing units are being lost than created, but that’s not what the public hears. We know that far more people are becoming homeless than are being housed, yet we are told to not question the plans in place. Sound familiar? Like say, oh invading a country without the necessary resources or having a clear understanding of what we do if things go in a different direction.
Since the 1980s America has treated homelessness and poverty as personal symptoms of bad habits – drugs, alcoholism, mental health, crime, etc., etc. The system we’ve created to house individuals acts on the premise that the individuals are at fault. It’s very easy to demonize individuals for behavior without ever touching on the issues of equality, housing, jobs, health care, on and on. Sure, we hear them driven home in sound bites from politicians and media, but rarely do they win out over criminalization, prison cells and short-sighted fixes that do nothing to solve the issues of poverty.
Now, for the first time in decades, many Americans who were two paychecks away from being homeless are forced to double up with family or friends, or are now living in a park in a neighborhood near you. As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate solutions, and it’s high time that our local government regulates the housing market in a way that forces institutions to follow through on affordable housing goals for the region. It’s not just our representatives in Washington D.C. that should be held accountable for the housing crisis; it’s state and local governments whose bark has been louder than their bite on affordable housing. The time to act is now.
by Israel Bayer