Washington – In the United States, the number of people who do not have a permanent residence has increased significantly again, and the statistics on homelessness, which have been kept since 2007, have reached a new record this year. The government announced this, saying that the development was caused by the interplay of various factors, including the unaffordability of housing, the end of pandemic social measures and problems with the reception of migrants. The negative trend continues as cities across the US begin to criminalize street sleeping.
In the census at the beginning of the year, the US government recorded more than 770,000 homeless people, which means that there were 23 of them for every 10,000 residents. The statistic had already increased by 12 percent year-on-year last year and has even risen by 18 percent this year, which according to diary The New York Times (NYT) highest increase on record for the federal government. The AP agency notes that the actual number of people without a permanent address is probably even higher.
The US Department of Housing, like a year ago, attributes the increase to rising rents and the end of social assistance programs introduced in connection with the covid-19 pandemic. The US, like European countries, has experienced a significant increase in the cost of living in recent years, with one of the most pressing issues being the rising cost of housing. The lack of affordable apartments and houses was also one of the themes of the recent election campaign, in which the eventually re-elected ex-president Donald Trump promised, among other things, to facilitate the construction of real estate.
Natural disasters also play a role in the boom in homelessness, AP reports. However, according to the NYT, government officials emphasized the connection to increased immigration to the US when presenting the new numbers. In recent years, hundreds of thousands of migrants have arrived in large American cities, where the capacity of hostels was insufficient for them.
An almost 40 percent increase in the number of families living on the street is related to this aspect. Almost 150,000 children experienced homelessness in a single night in the USA this year. However, government officials have argued that the surge in immigration has eased since the January census and that the situation has improved since the start of the year.
“This data is almost a year old and no longer reflects the situation we are seeing,” Acting Housing Minister Adrianne Todman said.
While the number of people without a permanent residence is increasing, the pressure on municipalities to do something about the situation is also growing. A breakthrough in this direction was brought by the June verdict of the US Supreme Court, which decided that the authorities can prohibit people from sleeping in public even in cases where a place in hostels is not secured for them. Just a few years earlier, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case after a federal appeals court concluded that criminalizing homelessness in such circumstances constituted an unconstitutional form of punishment.
Public radio company NPR reported this week that since the Supreme Court’s intervention, more than a hundred American cities and towns have banned people from sleeping in public, even though there is no shelter for the homeless. This is how local governments across the US proceed, whether they are led by Democratic Party politicians or Republicans. According to NPR, this reflects a strong frustration with the number of people on the streets and the drug problem, but homeless rights activists argue that fines and jail time will only make the situation worse.
US homeless welfare
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
