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There are many parishes in our community that hold clothing drives. For example, St. Justin Parish Community distributes food and clothing every Monday- Saturday. These clothing drives are used to give back to the community and for the homeless to have warm and comfortable clothes. Homeless people all over the world lack the proper clothes for the changing weather. With the help of clothing drives, homeless people will be better prepared for the changing weather.

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Community Ministry Pantry (408) 243-1462 Joe Bauer at istmas and Easter; Lenten Soup Suppers; the development of teams to service outside agencies and events, and Blood Drives are sponsored. Time Involvement 2 - 6 hours per week, month, or year depending on the project.

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Government assistance to the poor and/or homeless

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Government assistance to the poor and/or homeless

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The government in America sets up “Federal Homelessness Programs” to assist the homeless. But this does not expand far enough to support the substantial amount of homeless people in our world today. The current president has created a budget in order to assist the millions of struggling families. Unfortantly this budget isn’t only doing good it has negative effects; some of the policies for the budget are making it difficult for low to moderate income people to have Medicaid coverage. However, in other countries such as Finland the government there has made a larger effort to lesson their homelessness percentage. The country used a “Housing First” method. Homeless people were provided with a stable home and then supported as they try to remake a life for themselves. All over the world people are sturggling in little amounts to great amounts of poverty and so far no country government, except Finland’s, has proven to give adequate assistance to take all these people out of poverty.

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Less than two months after signing massive tax cuts that largely benefit those at the top of the economic ladder, President Trump has put forward a 2019 budget that cuts basic assistance that millions of families struggling to get by need to help pay the rent, put food on the table, and get health care. The cuts would affect a broad range of low- and moderate-income people, including parents, children, seniors, and people with disabilities. Taken together, the cuts are far deeper than any ever enacted and would deepen poverty and hardship and swell the ranks of the uninsured.

These cuts fly in the face of the Administration's rhetoric about expanding opportunity for those facing difficulties in today's economy and helping more people work.The budget also scales back efforts to promote opportunity and upward mobility, such as by cutting both job training and programs that make college more affordable. These cuts fly in the face of the Administration's rhetoric about expanding opportunity for those facing difficulties in today's economy and helping more people work.

This paper examines the budget's cuts in health care, food assistance through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps), housing and home energy assistance, income assistance for people with disabilities, funding to states for other supports for low-income families, grants and loans to make college more affordable, and non-defense discretionary programs as a whole.

Health Care Cuts Would Leave Millions More Uninsured

Through 2017, the President pressed Congress to enact legislation repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and deeply cutting Medicaid. Meanwhile, the Administration has used its administrative authority to implement - and to encourage states to implement - policies that make it harder for many eligible people to get and retain health coverage.

The budget doubles down in both areas. It cuts Medicaid and subsidies for private coverage in the marketplace by $763 billion over the next decade, with cuts reaching $172 billion annually by 2028.

Most significantly, it embraces the ACA repeal bill sponsored by Senators Bill Cassidy, Lindsey Graham, Dean Heller, and Ron Johnson (the "Cassidy-Graham" proposal), then cuts funding for health coverage programs well below the already shrunken levels in that bill.

The Trump proposal eliminates the ACA's expansion of Medicaid to low-income adults and its subsidies that help low- and moderate-income people obtain marketplace coverage, replacing this funding with a block grant whose funding would fall further and further behind current-law funding each year. The proposal also imposes a per capita cap on federal Medicaid funding for seniors, people with disabilities, and families with children. Such a cap means that the federal government will only pay a certain amount for care per person, regardless of the actual cost of care. And, the proposal sets the per capita cap at a level that is below expected health care costs, with the shortfall growing each year. Finally, the Trump budget would weaken consumer protections for people with private coverage, such as by allowing states to eliminate key protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

The budget also includes other policies designed to make it harder for low- and moderate-income people to obtain Medicaid coverage and marketplace subsidies. For example, it allows states to consider assets such as bank accounts in determining Medicaid eligibility for children, parents, pregnant women, and other adults. The vast majority of low- and moderate-income families have minimal assets, but proving that their assets fall below a specified level can be complicated and time-consuming for both families and states. That's why, even before the ACA, many states dropped Medicaid asset tests; the tests were costly to implement, and few people were found to have assets over the limit. By eliminating asset tests, the ACA made it simpler for people to access coverage and aligned eligibility rules for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program with those for the ACA's premium tax credits, which has made it easier for people to move between these programs as their incomes fluctuate.

Taken together, the budget's "repeal and replace" proposals and additional Medicaid cuts would cause millions of people to lose coverage and make coverage less adequate or less affordable for millions more.

Cuts in Nutrition Assistance Would Make It Harder for Families to Afford Food

The 2019 Trump budget cuts SNAP by more than $213 billion over the next ten years - or by nearly 30 percent. It imposes large benefit cuts on most households even though current benefits average just $1.40 per person per meal, and radically restructures how benefits are delivered. It also includes other benefit and eligibility cuts that would cause at least 4 million people to lose SNAP benefits altogether. The cuts would affect every category of SNAP participant, including the unemployed, the elderly, individuals with disabilities, and low-income working families with children.

The budget:

Shifts more than $260 billion in food purchasing from individual households to the government. Under the proposal, the Agriculture Department (USDA) would hold back an estimated $24 to $29 billion per year in SNAP benefits (about 40 percent of the benefits issued to households) and use about half of these funds to give the households a box of non-perishable foods such as shelf-stable milk, ready-to-eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans, and canned foods. This box of food would be in lieu of food that households would otherwise purchase with SNAP benefits at the grocery store. The other half of the held-back funds would be cut; households wouldn't receive these benefits in any form. (The Administration claims that the government can purchase, box, and distribute these food commodities at a substantially reduced cost.)

These changes would affect an estimated 34 million people in 16 million households in 2019, or almost 90 percent of SNAP participants. The new structure would impose new costs on states, which would be expected to implement the change without adequate financial support. And it would likely force households to incur greater transportation costs (and time) to get food for their families because they may have to pick up the commodities at centralized locations while still traveling to grocery stories for the remainder of their food purchases.

Cuts SNAP benefits for a broad swath of SNAP households. The budget also includes roughly another $85 billion in SNAP cuts over ten years. This includes requiring states to terminate food assistance to unemployed adults who aren't raising children after only three months, even if they live in areas with high unemployment. States would only be able to waive this requirement in areas with unemployment above 10 percent, an extremely high bar that will miss many locations where few jobs are available to lower-skilled workers. (Current law allows states to seek waivers from the three-month limit for areas where jobs are scarce.) The budget also extends this three-month time limit to adults ages 50 to 62, who aren't currently subject to it due to the unique labor-market challenges that many older workers face, including a higher incidence of poor health and outdated skills.

The budget also cuts SNAP benefits for many working families by eliminating a state option that allows benefits to phase down more smoothly as earnings increase, thereby avoiding a benefit cliff. And on top of that, the budget contains further SNAP cuts that would reduce benefits to 2 million more individuals, largely low-income seniors and people with disabilities, and households with more than six members.

Cuts in Housing and Energy Assistance Would Make It Harder for Families to Pay Rent

As discussed below, the President's budget includes substantial cuts in non-defense programs -programs outside defense that are funded each year through the annual appropriations process. Among these are substantial cuts in low-income housing programs that would affect a broad swath of low-income households, including several million working families with children, seniors, and people with disabilities. The 2019 Trump budget proposes the largest retrenchment of federal housing aid since the U.S. Housing Act was enacted in 1937.

In 2019 the budget cuts Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) programs by $6.8 billion (or 14.2 percent) below the 2017 level, not counting losses due to inflation. (The figures here include adjustments in the Administration's budget "addendum," which requests modest additional funding in several program areas.) The cuts likely would grow after 2019, as explained below, because the budget proposes far deeper cuts in non-defense discretionary programs after that year.

A large share of the HUD cuts comes from the Section 8 rental assistance and public housing programs, which assist 4.4 million low-income households. More specifically, the budget:

Cancels Housing Choice Vouchers - which help low-income households afford private, modest apartments - for about 200,000 low-income households. These cuts would hit extremely low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and working families with children hard, undercut community efforts to reduce homelessness, and weaken housing stability, which is critical to children's development and school attendance.

Raises rents on low-income families with HUD rental assistance. Nearly all households receiving rental assistance that are headed by a person who is not 62 or older or disabled would have to spend 35 percent of their income on rent, up from 30 percent under current law. Working families would bear the bulk of such rent increases and be especially hard hit, because they also could no longer subtract child care expenses from their incomes in determining their rent payments (i.e., rents would be raised from 30 percent of income after deductions for costs like child care to 35 percent of gross income). The budget also raises the minimum monthly rent to $150, which means rents would triple or more for the poorest families; this change would largely hit households that live below half of the poverty line, and it would likely result in more evictions and homelessness.

The budget documents indicate that the Administration plans to propose legislation that will both make these rent policy changes and allow local housing agencies and private owners of HUD-assisted housing to terminate housing assistance to working-age tenants without disabilities who don't work at least 32 hours per week or participate in certain education or training programs, whether jobs, training, or dependent care are available or not.

Cuts funding for public housing repairs by $3.0 billion or 47 percent, compared to 2017, virtually assuring a loss of affordable housing stock in communities facing massive shortages of such housing. Public housing already faces more than $26 billion in repair needs; but rather than proposing a realistic strategy for preserving this critical source of affordable housing, the Administration simply assumes states and localities will fill the gap.

Eliminates the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). A program in the Department of Health and Human Services, LIHEAP helps low-income households pay for heat and other utilities.

These cuts, together with the Trump budget's proposed elimination of several flexible grant programs that support the development of affordable housing, would cause many households to lose access to affordable housing and raise rent and utility costs for families that still have it. The net result would be more homelessness and housing instability.

Cuts in Disability Benefits Would Increase Hardship

The 2019 Trump budget reduces disability programs by $72 billion, including reductions to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) as well as Supplemental Security Income (SSI), which provides aid to low-income individuals with disabilities (as well as low-income seniors).

The budget cuts tens of billions of dollars in SSDI benefits, which are funded out of workers' payroll taxes and which protect workers and their families if a disability cuts their careers short. One budget proposal cuts in half the retroactive benefits that disabled workers may receive. These are benefits provided to new SSDI recipients to reflect the loss of earnings when they became disabled, even if they delayed applying for benefits because they were hoping to get better and go back to work.

For example, consider a worker whose career is cut short by a car crash, but who hopes she can overcome her injuries and return to work. Under current law, she can receive up to 12 months of retroactive benefits - a critical lifeline that can prevent bankruptcy or homelessness. The Trump proposal would cut that payment in half. A beneficiary who would have qualified for 12 months of retroactive benefits would lose an average of about $7,000 in earned Social Security benefits. Moreover, shortening the period of retroactive benefits can encourage people to apply earlier for SSDI instead of first testing whether they can return to work, since such a test could cost them thousands of dollars in benefits their families may need if they aren't successful in going back to work.

The budget's largest SSDI savings stem from a proposal to test new approaches to increase labor force participation of people with disabilities. The likelihood that such tests would result in large savings from increased employment is very low, given evidence from past efforts in this area and the extremely poor health status of most SSDI beneficiaries.

The budget also cuts SSI, which goes primarily to low-income people with severe disabilities; for example, 1.2 million children receive SSI for conditions such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, autism, intellectual disability, and blindness. The budget cuts nearly $7 billion over ten years from benefits for children and parents if another family member also receives SSI - hurting, for example, a family with children who share a genetic disorder. Some 70 percent of poor families that care for more than one child with disabilities already struggle to afford basic needs like food, rent, and heat. Under the guise of "simplification," the budget also cuts more than half a billion dollars over the next decade from SSI recipients who live with others outside their immediate family to make ends meet.

Cuts to TANF and Social Services Block Grant Would Hurt Families and States

The 2019 Trump budget cuts the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant and eliminates altogether the related TANF Contingency Fund - a cut of $21 billion in fundingover the next decade. TANF provides funds to states for short-term income assistance, work programs, and other crucial supports for poor families with children. Such cuts conflict sharply with the budget's rhetoric on promoting work opportunities for poor families.

The budget also eliminates the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), which provides $1.7 billion in flexible funding to states each year for services such as child care, day programs for seniors and people with disabilities, services for homeless individuals and families, and others. Taken together, these two proposals cut flexible human services funding by $37.8 billion over the coming decade.

In addition, the budget includes a proposal to require states to focus a larger share of their TANF funding on work programs, education and training, and child care. While focusing a larger share of TANF on certain core activities is a good idea, this proposal is problematic because it fails to recognize that providing income assistance to very poor families is also a core component of TANF. Many children live in deep poverty because TANF programs provide income assistance to so few poor families that need help to make ends meet. Moreover, the budget's cuts in TANF and SSBG would undermine the goal of directing more resources to core activities within TANF.

Cuts in Grants and Loans Would Make College More Expensive

The 2019 Trump budget eliminates the Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant (SEOG), which supplements Pell Grants for some of the neediest students. The justification is that SEOG funds are not optimally distributed across schools. But rather than change the funding allocation, the Administration wants to eliminate a program that makes college more affordable for 1.5 million of the neediest students - with no replacement.

The budget also deeply cuts the work-study program (even after considering the Administration's budget addendum that calls for increased funding in 2019 in some specific areas). It justifies the cut by saying that the Administration wants to change the type of work opportunities available to students, but slashing funding would leave fewer students with job opportunities to help pay for college.

Finally, the budget includes a series of changes in the student loan program that would raise students' borrowing costs. Some of the reforms have merit, such as consolidating loan repayment options. But these changes overall would make college less, not more, affordable. The budget cuts student loans by more than $200 billion over the next decade and fails to invest these funds into expanding college affordability meaningfully. Indeed, the budget freezes Pell Grants, which means their value would erode with inflation and they would do less each year to help low- and moderate-income students afford college.

Cuts in Non-Defense Programs Would Affect Wide Range of Services

Non-defense discretionary (annually appropriated) programs include a broad set of public services, including those that help low- and moderate-income households, such as housing and energy assistance, and those that promote opportunity, such as college aid and job training.

Last week, Congress passed and the President signed into law a budget agreement that raised funding for both defense and non-defense appropriated programs, but the 2019 Trump budget violates the spirit of this bipartisan deal by dropping most of its added funding in 2019 for non-defense discretionary (NDD) programs, while maintaining its defense increases.

Even with the additional funding in its addendum, the budget sets overall NDD funding for 2019 some $57 billion below the level in the bipartisan agreement. That deep cut produces the large cuts discussed above in areas such as housing assistance and college aid.

And in years after 2019, the budget calls for cuts of unprecedented depth in NDD programs even though this part of the budget contains most of the federal investments that can help boost long-term economic growth. In 2020, NDD funding would fall $141 billion below the 2019 level agreed to in the budget deal. By 2028, NDD funding would fall 42 percent below the 2017 level, after adjusting for inflation. This would almost certainly necessitate cuts in job training and deeper cuts in college aid, K-12 education, and other areas designed to promote upward mobility.

Conclusion

President Trump's new budget would severely damage an array of investments that help many of the very people he has said would be his priority - people who have been left behind by today's economy or live in distressed urban or rural communities. Coming on the heels of a costly tax cut that's heavily tilted to the nation's wealthiest households and corporations, the budget highlights the vast gulf between President Trump's promises and his actual policies.

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Trump Budget Deeply Cuts Health, Housing, Other Assistance for Low- and Moderate-Income Families

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Less than two months after signing massive tax cuts that largely benefit those at the top of the economic ladder, President Trump has put forward a 2019 budget that cuts basic assistance that millions of families struggling to get by need to help pay the rent, put food on the table, and get health care.

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The 4 main causes of homelessness are lack of affordable housing, unemployment, poverty, and low wages. Especially in Silicon Valley, house prices are rising more and more every year ranging from $500,000 to $1.8 million. With the rising cost of houses, people are finding themselves unable to financially stabilize them and their families. Also, about 5% of people in the US are unemployed. With high levels of unemployment, people are not able to pay for everyday necessities such as food, water, and clothes. Next, about 12.3% (39 million) of the population live in poverty due to unclean water. Lastly, the low wages of employee earnings is effecting the ability for people to pay for their taxes or home giving them reason to become homeless.

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When Housing is Out of Reach

More than at any other time, there is a lack of housing that low income people can afford. Without housing options, people face eviction, instability and homelessness.

Housing

Income and Housing Affordability

Low income households often do not earn enough to pay for food, clothing, transportation and a place they can call home.

Income

Connecting Homelessness and Health

Health and homelessness are inextricably linked. Health problems can cause a person's homelessness as well as be exacerbated by the experience. Housing is key to addressing the health needs of people experiencing homelessness.

Health

Escaping Violence

Many survivors of domestic violence become homeless when leaving an abusive relationship.

Domestic Violence

Impact of Racial Disparities

Most minority groups in the United States experience homelessness at higher rates than Whites, and therefore make up a disproportionate share of the homeless population.

Racial Inequality

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More than at any other time, there is a lack of housing that low income people can afford. Without housing options, people face eviction, instability and homelessness. Housing Low income households often do not earn enough to pay for food, clothing, transportation and a place they can call home.

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Financial Institutions consolance to missed mortgage payments due to unemployment...

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Financial Institutions consolance to missed mortgage payments due to unemployment...

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How understanding a financial institution is on a family missing a mortgage payment due to unemployment depends on the families ongoing situation during the missed mortgage and how they have dealt with payments in the past. Usually families have from 111 days to 12 months before getting evicted. However, if the. family recently became unemployed then institutions may give them closer to a year to pay the mortgage or at least part of it. Furthermore, missing a mortgage isn’t taken lightly and eventually will lead to being evicted even if you are unemployed. But it does not happen right away and the institutions give some amount of time to fix your situation.

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How Long Do I Get to Stay in My House if I Don't Pay My Mortgage?

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When you stop paying your mortgage, you may create a situation that ends in foreclosure and eviction from your home. Foreclosure isn't an overnight process and it sometimes takes more than a year to complete. In addition, there are tactics that can stretch out a home's pre-foreclosure period for several ...

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The Community Action Partnership is a non-profit organization that helps give shelter to the homeless while they are at work. How the organization works is you apply for an apartment and if you are eligible for the house, you are able to move in as long as your working. This organization helps people get back on their feet by making enough money to pay for their own housing and own necessities.

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The nation's Community Action network - including 1,000 plus Community Action Agencies - are a robust, national, state, and local force, reaching children and families in 99% of America's counties with life changing services that create pathways to opportunity and prosperity.

The Community Action network:

Connects individuals and families to approaches that help them succeed - including high quality education programs for children, job retraining for adults, stable and affordable housing for families, utility assistance for seniors, and so much more.

Promotes community-wide solutions to seemingly stubborn challenges throughout our cities, suburbs, and in rural areas - whether it's the lack of affordable housing or the need to promote economic growth that benefits all families.

Shares expertise with national, state, and local leaders looking for evidence on what works to promote greater economic opportunity for children and families.

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The nation's Community Action network - including 1,000 plus Community Action Agencies - are a robust, national, state, and local force, reaching children and families in 99% of America's counties with life changing services that create pathways to opportunity and prosperity.

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Getting troubled teens off the streets...

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Getting troubled teens off the streets...

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There are many nonprofit organizations to help poor teens, who have struggling families, adjust to their life and get support from others in order to put their life in order. These organizations try to create a safe community to raise these teens and support them in ways their family could not. There are organizations helping by initiating local support groups to professionals teaching these teens how to succeed and make a living. There are also organizations to help people from ages thirteen to twenty-five to adjust to alternate living arrangements. There are struggling teens all over the world without help they can not make a life for themselves.

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Organizations offering help to teens include local support groups, professionals, youth centers and religious organizations. These can be found with a call to a school counselor or county mental health department or through an Internet search using the name of your town, keywords such as teen, youth or young adult and the type of support sought. National organizations often serve teens via phone, Internet and sometimes local outreach programs. Most are nonprofit, confidential and free.

Suicide Prevention

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is for anyone contemplating suicide and for anyone simply needing to talk about stressful situations or feelings. To speak to a trained counselor, call 800-273-TALK (8255) any day or time. The NSPL serves all ages, but it links to a teen/young adult website called You Matter. Here youth participate anonymously in forums, watch videos and read blogs, such as "It Does Get Better - But What About Right Now?" that are written by other young people who have also traveled rough roads. The You Matter website, not a substitute for getting immediate help, posts the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.

On the Street

StandUp for Kids strives to build supportive relationships with 13- to 25-year-olds living on the street. The nonprofit helps kids find and adjust to safe, alternative living arrangements and helps them become self-sufficient. And they provide support to youth unable or unwilling to leave the streets. For help, call StandUp for Kids at 800-365-4KID. National Runaway Safeline's mission is also to keep America's youth safe and off the streets. Services include runaway prevention and helping runaways reconnect with families. Also, NRS answers legal and medical questions and provides referrals to appropriate supports such as drug treatment, runaway shelters such as Teen Living Programs, counseling and support groups. Call 800-RUNAWAY. Its website 1800runaway.org lists organizations that help with specific problems encountered by kids on the street, such as forced prostitution and bullying.

Covering It All

The tagline for ReachOut.com, "Get Through Tough Times," sums up its goal. Administered by the Inspire USA Foundation, ReachOut.com's mission is "to help youth strengthen mental wellness through technology-driven resources and peer support." It works with nonprofits, government agencies and universities. Website content is written by teens and young adults for other youth who can also connect in the forums and get fact sheets and helpline numbers on their Crisis Help page. Another organization helping teens through rough spots is Teen Line, created in 1980 by mental health professionals. Youth can text, chat, email or call a volunteer, using contact information on the website. Common website questions and staff responses deal with sadness, anger, clinical depression, loneliness, sexuality, suicide, school and abuse.

Brighter Futures

Working with other volunteers for a common cause provides a sense of belonging that is important to young people. Do Something.org provides teens and young adults with opportunities to volunteer and advocate for causes that matter to them. It connects youth with a varied selection of causes and gives them the chance to earn scholarships, complete internships and become engaged in work that boosts self-esteem and leads to career opportunities. Nearly a third of the kids served by the Boys and Girls Clubs of America are teens who don't just hang out after school but become involved in indoor and outdoor activities, from computers to basketball. The BGCA helps teens complete homework, prepare for college and manage personal finances. Use the site's locator to find a club near you.

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Organizations offering help to teens include local support groups, professionals, youth centers and religious organizations. These can be found with a call to a school counselor or county mental health department or through an Internet search using the name of your town, keywords such as teen, youth or young adult and the type of support sought.

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Countries dealing with these societal problems

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Countries dealing with these societal problems

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In August 2014, Japan was report the country with the lowest amount of homelessness. How? Well according to Hiroki Motoda, support to the homeless was including in the whole cities. This was by providing homing and providing emoployment advice. In Denmark, they have a “housing first” policies keeping all (especially youths) off of the streets. They also track the volunteers that help and send reminders to others that don’t help as often. In Singapore, they have created a whole board to create housing units for the homeless. Singapore has reported “virtually no homelessness.”

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ThinkProgress has dedicated a portion of our coverage on Wednesday, June 29th to reporting on the state of homelessness in Washington, D.C. This story is part of that .
Homelessness is an issue for nearly every country. In recent years, the United States has increased efforts to end homelessness around the country. As the U.S. looks for new methods of handling the homelessness issue, here's a few examples of how other countries have lowered homelessness rates.

Japan

In August 2014, homelessness in Tokyo hit record lows.

"Hiroki Motoda, a metropolitan government official, said support for the homeless offered by the city, including temporary housing provision and employment advice, had contributed to lowering the figure over the years," the Wall Street Journal reported at the time.

While Japan's homelessness issue is less racially charged, major American cities can take the lead from Tokyo - a metropolis with a population larger than New York and Los Angeles combined. The homeless population Tokyo is less than 700 according to government reports. Tokyo's population is over 13 million (the greater Tokyo area has over 36 million residents) but in the Washington D.C. - where the population is 672,000 - there are more than 7,000 homeless people.

Denmark

The percentage of homeless people in Denmark is less than 0.1 percent. Denmark's 'housing first' policy helps keep people - and particularly the youth - off the streets. It also matches a strategy that certain communities in the U.S. are advocating for after initial success in Utah. "[T]he public housing sector is about twenty percent of the total housing stock in Denmark," an essay published by the University of Maryland says.

The country also prioritizes policies and funding for homeless people. Denmark gave the homeless their own cemetery and in the third largest city of Odense, researchers track volunteers to try and figure out how to place infrastructure that benefits the homeless.

Singapore

Singapore has "virtually no homelessness," according to the Solutions Journal. In 1960, Lee Kuan Yew and the People's Action Party (PAP) put together a Housing and Development Board to build 51,031 new housing units over a five year period. That legacy has lived on in modern Singapore, as government build houses were affordable enough for many residents to buy over the years.

"According to Statistics Singapore, 90 percent of Singaporeans own their own homes today and more than 80 percent live in government-built residential units," City Lab reported.

The U.S. population could prove a stumbling block in repeating such a task but providing housing and supportive services for more than a half-million homeless Americans would still be less expensive than doing nothing.

Canada

In the city of Medicine Hat in Alberta, no person living without shelter goes more than 10 days before the government provides them with permanent housing. This project was started in 2009 and as of 2015 the city's residents were almost entirely living in permanent housing. "We want to see if it's sustainable before we announce that we've ended homelessness," Mayor Ted Clugston told the Calgary Herald.

Clugston is a fiscal conservative, according to the Herald, and while he was skeptical of the plan at first, results have changed his mind.

"It makes financial sense. That's how I had my epiphany and was converted," he said. "You can actually save money by giving somebody some dignity and giving them a place to live."

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Four Countries The United States Can Look To When Fighting Homelessness

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ThinkProgress has dedicated a portion of our coverage on Wednesday, June 29th to reporting on the state of homelessness in Washington, D.C. This story is part of that . Homelessness is an issue for nearly every country. In recent years, the United States has increased efforts to end homelessness around the country.

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In 2017 it was declared that there are over 500,000 people in America struggling with homelessness every night. The number is increasing daily and even though there are tons of organizations all over helping people with depression, drug abuse , or unemployment, which are three leadings reasons for being homeless, there is not enough help going out to get people off the streets for a night.

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As the Alliance publishes this updated version of the State of Homelessness, COVID-19 is creating a health and economic crisis in America and throughout the world. It is too soon to determine its ultimate impacts. Thus, this year's report represents a baseline-the state of homelessness before the crisis began. It also reflects some early considerations and predictions about the influence of the pandemic on this vulnerable population.
Homelessness in America

Seventeen out of every 10,000 people in the United States were experiencing homelessness on a single night in January 2019 during HUD's Annual Point-in-Time Count. These 567,715 people represent a cross-section of America. They are associated with every region of the country, family status, gender category, and racial/ethnic group.

Large Subpopulations. Certain subpopulations are significantly represented within homelessness:

Individuals. Seventy percent of people experiencing homelessness are individuals who are living on their own or in the company of other adults. The remainder (30 percent) are people in families with children.

Males. Homelessness is significantly defined by gender. Sixty percent of all people experiencing homelessness are male. Amongst individuals, the numbers are starker-70 percent are men and unaccompanied male youth.

Unsheltered. Far too many people in America sleep outside and in other locations not meant for human habitation. This group includes more than 200,000 people (37 percent of the overall population). Among individuals experiencing homelessness, the numbers are more dire-1 in 2 are unsheltered.

Most At Risk. Numerical size is one reason to focus on a subpopulation within homelessness. Risk is another. Some groups are much more likely to become homeless than the national average.

Pacific Islanders and Native Americans are most likely to be homeless in America when compared to all other racial/ethnic groups. Within the former, 160 people experience homelessness out of every 10,000 compared to the national average of 17 out of every 10,000. Pacific Islanders and Native Americans are numerically small groups within the U.S., making it more difficult for the U.S. Census Bureau and homelessness services systems to count them accurately. Nevertheless, available data suggest they face significant challenges.

Black Americans, multiracial Americans, and Hispanics/Latinxs are similarly situated. Group members are far more likely to be homeless than the national average and white Americans.

Prioritized Groups. Researchers and the public policy world have emphasized some additional subpopulations. Chronically homeless individuals are disabled and have experienced long-term and/or repeated episodes of homelessness. They are currently 17 percent of the population. Veterans, who are 7 percent of people experiencing homelessness, are prioritized due to their service to our country. And unaccompanied youth, who represent 6 percent of the population, are a vulnerable age group consisting of those under 25 years old.

COVID-19 Vulnerable. According to the CDC, some individuals are at higher risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19. They include older adults age 65 and over. However, people experiencing homelessness age faster than housed people. Research indicates they have physical conditions that mirror those of people 15-20 years older than them. On a single day, an estimated 202,623 single adults experiencing homelessness are over age 50, suggesting they may be uniquely vulnerable to becoming seriously ill during the pandemic crisis.

An additional CDC-identified risk group is people with pre-existing health conditions. Before the current crisis, growing numbers were experiencing unsheltered homelessness-a living situation associated with poor health. A recent study sampled unsheltered individuals from across the country, finding 84 percent self-reporting existing physical health conditions. Only 19 percent of people in shelters said the same.

Trends in Homelessness

Compared to the previous year, homelessness increased by 3 percent in the 2019 Point-in-Time Count. This marked the third straight year of national-level increases.

Despite this negative movement, the long-term trend has been downward. Overall homelessness has decreased by 12 percent since 2007, the year nation-wide data collection began. The current COVID-19 crisis has the potential to diminish or completely wipe out these modest gains.

Subpopulations. Existing progress has been uneven. Subpopulations prioritized in policy and practice (including funding decisions) have made the most impressive gains over the last decade. Veterans experienced the greatest decreases in homelessness-50 percent. Other subpopulations have realized smaller reductions that, nevertheless, are larger than those in overall homelessness. They include people in families (29 percent), chronically homeless individuals (9 percent), and people experiencing unsheltered homelessness (10 percent).

One group is noticeably falling behind all others. Individuals have only realized a 0.2 percent reduction in homelessness over the last decade. Some are veterans, unaccompanied youth, and chronically homeless. These subgroups have been experiencing greater progress than individuals more generally-but they only make up a minority of the individuals population and help to mask the delayed progress of a sizable majority who are not veterans, unaccompanied youth, or chronically homeless.

Individuals are also solely responsible for the national-level increases in overall homelessness that occurred over the last three years. Individual homelessness increased by 11 percent over that period even as numbers for people in families continued to decrease. This upwards trend exists across a broad range of individuals, including the chronically homeless, men, women, and every racial/ethnic group.

States. As with subpopulations, some states are making more progress towards ending homelessness than others.

Thirty states reduced homelessness since the previous year. Long-term trends further highlight the more successful stories. A majority (37) have reduced homelessness since 2007, with the most significant gains occurring in Michigan (-70 percent), Kentucky (-49 percent), and New Jersey (-49 percent).

Other states have more people experiencing homelessness than they did more than a decade ago. Fourteen have seen their numbers increase between 2 and 72 percent over that period. New and decisive action is necessary to ensure these states build real momentum in the fight against homelessness.

Geographic Regions Experiencing the Greatest Challenges

Identifying the regions with the most challenges informs nation-wide efforts to end homelessness.

Counts. One approach is to examine the locations with the highest homeless counts. They include states such as California, Florida, New York, and Texas as well as Continuums of Care (CoCs) serving New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Texas' Balance of State. These locations share a common characteristic-relatively large general populations. They include major cities and Balance of States encompassing broad expanses of land (with numerous towns and cities).

Fifty-six percent of people experiencing homelessness are in the five states that have the largest homeless counts. More than 1 in 3 are in the twenty CoCs with the highest numbers of people experiencing homelessness. Thus, much of this national challenge is located in a small number of places, with most jurisdictions having a much smaller problem to manage.

Rates. Rates of homelessness are another way of gauging the severity of the problem within a jurisdiction. They reflect the number of people experiencing homelessness in relation to the general population.

Rates across the country are wildly divergent. Amongst states/territories, the District of Columbia (93 people experiencing homelessness out of every 10,000) and New York (47 out of 10,000) have the highest rates. By contrast, Louisiana (6 out of 10,000) and Mississippi (4 out of 10,000) have the lowest rates. Many homeless people reside in high rate jurisdictions. Forty-five percent are in the five states/territories with the highest rates.

Many of the high rate states and CoCs are associated with other notable housing issues. Researchers and advocates cite many of them as having the highest housing costs and highest rent burdens (housing costs as a percentage of income) in the nation.

Some states and CoCs are anomalies. Their counts and rates defy expectations rooted in overall population size and housing costs. Those states and communities may possess unusual characteristics tied to history, government policy, or culture. Some may have homeless services systems that are either highly effective or falling far short of their potential.

COVID-19. Counts and rates typically offer useful information about the challenges facing homeless systems-they reflect the number of people who need homeless services. During the current pandemic, there is a new challenge-the number of people who contract an infectious illness (COVID-19) while needing homeless services.

Self-quarantine, social isolation, and stay-at-home orders are difficult, if not impossible, to follow when you do not have a home. Thus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has offered guidance on how to best serve people in shelters and unsheltered locations. Meeting COVID-19-related health needs is putting new strain on homeless services systems, especially those with large numbers of infected consumers.

Recent research predicts the number of COVID-19 cases that will arise among people experiencing homelessness in the nation's counties. Those facing the most severe challenges mainly reside in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York City, San Jose, Seattle, Oakland, San Francisco, Las Vegas, and Phoenix.

Homeless Assistance in America

Homeless services systems do not have enough resources to fully meet the needs of everyone experiencing homelessness. Thus, it is helpful to examine the difficult decisions they must make, including how to allot the limited funds available to them.

Temporary Housing. Over the last five years, the number of temporary housing beds (Emergency Shelter, Safe Haven, and Transitional Housing) has decreased by 9 percent.

A national-level snapshot of these beds during the Point-in-Time count is informative. Individual community circumstances vary. However, in the aggregate, systems were able to offer a year-round bed to only 51 percent of individuals and 100 percent of people in families (the latter with a surplus of over 15,000 beds).

During the winter months, some communities temporarily supplement these year-round beds with seasonal ones. Nevertheless, many people are unsheltered, living on the streets, in abandoned buildings, or other locations not suitable for human habitation. Being unsheltered is mostly a challenge for individual adults, but some families with children are also in these living situations.

COVID-19 is creating a new type of emergency. According to an early estimate, 400,000 new units are needed to prevent the spread of the virus and care for the sick. These accommodations would allow for social distancing, quarantine, and isolation for people who are typically in crowded shelter settings or living unsheltered.

Permanent Housing. While the number of temporary housing beds decreased by 9 percent, the number of permanent housing beds (Permanent Supportive Housing, Rapid Re-Housing, and Other) increased by 20 percent over the last five years.

These numbers reflect a shift in policy priorities. Renewed emphasis is on ending homelessness by moving more people into permanent housing, rather than allowing them to linger indefinitely in shelters and unsheltered locations.

Forty-seven states and the District of Columbia have participated in this trend over the last five years, growing their number of permanent housing beds. Eleven states and territories increased them by more than 50 percent over this short period of years.

Currently, 57 percent of all homeless system beds are designated for permanent housing.

Common Forms of Assistance. Nationally, the most common type of homeless assistance is permanent supportive housing (PSH). Forty-one percent of system beds are in this category which has grown by 96 percent since 2007. Emergency shelter beds, the second most prevalent intervention, have increased by 38 percent since 2007.

Rapid rehousing, the newest type of permanent housing intervention, is continuing along a path of rapid growth. There are 87 percent more beds in this category than there were five years ago.

Transitional housing is the only intervention on the decline-there are 55 percent fewer beds in this category than there were in 2007. This shift is a part of the trend towards more investment in permanent housing solutions.

Populations at Risk of Homelessness

Many Americans live in poverty, amounting to 38.1 million people or 11.8 percent of the U.S. population. They struggle to afford necessities such as housing.

In 2018, 6.5 million Americans experienced severe housing cost burden, which means they spent more than 50 percent of their income on housing. This marked the fourth straight year of decreases in the size of this group. However, the number of severely cost burdened Americans is still 13 percent higher than it was in 2007, the year the nation began monitoring homelessness data.

Another measure of housing hardship is "doubling up," or sharing the housing of others for economic reasons. In 2018, an estimated 4 million people were in these situations. Some of these people have fragile relationships with their hosts or face other challenges in the home, putting them at risk of homelessness. Over the last five years, this number of doubled up people has been trending downward but is still 12 percent higher than it was in 2007.

Over the last decade, the nation hasn't made any real progress in reducing the number of Americans who are at risk of homelessness.

Further, few states are realizing significant improvements in these areas. Within the category of severe housing cost burden, Colorado tops the list but has only reduced its numbers by 13 percent since 2007. Over the same period, Colorado is also the state making the most significant progress in the doubled up category-however, its number only decreased by 34 percent. Most states are seeing their severe housing cost burden and doubled up numbers grow.

Sources and Methodology

Data on homelessness are based on annual point-in-time (PIT) counts conducted by Continuums of Care (CoCs) to estimate the number of people experiencing homelessness on a given night. The latest counts are from January 2019. Point-in-time data from 2007 to 2019 are available on HUD Exchange.

Rates of homelessness are a comparison of point-in-time counts to state, county, and city population data from the Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program, accessed via American FactFinder (table PEPANNRES: Annual Estimates of the Resident Population, 2018 version). Most CoC boundaries align with one or multiple counties, and about a dozen align with cities that are entirely within one county. However, four CoCs align with city boundaries spanning multiple counties (Atlanta, GA; Amarillo, TX; Kansas City, MO; and Oklahoma City, OK). For these, the population was estimated based on prior year trends.

Data on homeless assistance, or bed capacity of homeless services programs on a given night, are reported annually by CoCs along with point-in-time counts. These data are compiled in the Housing Inventory Count (HIC), which is also available on HUD Exchange for 2007 through 2019.

Data on at risk populations are from analyses by the National Alliance to End Homelessness of the Census Bureau's 2018 American Community Survey 1-year Estimates, accessed via American FactFinder. Poor renter households with a severe housing cost burden are households whose total income falls under the applicable poverty threshold and who are paying 50 percent or more of total household income to housing rent. For people living doubled up, poverty is based on the composition and income of the entire household as compared to the poverty thresholds. A person is considered living doubled up based on his or her relationship to the head of household and includes: an adult child (18 years old or older) who is not in school, is married, and/or has children; a sibling; a parent or parent-in-law; an adult grandchild who is not in school; a grandchild who is a member of a subfamily; a son- or daughter-in-law; another relative; or any non-relative.

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State of Homelessness: 2020 Edition - National Alliance to End Homelessness

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As the Alliance publishes this updated version of the State of Homelessness, COVID-19 is creating a health and economic crisis in America and throughout the world. It is too soon to determine its ultimate impacts. Thus, this year's report represents [...]