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Running Head: Homelessness in Minnesota 1

Homelessness in Minnesota
Theo M. Keller

Edina High School

Homelessness in Minnesota

Homelessness might seem like something that is uncommon to most, but it can really

happen to almost anyone in a flash. According to Wilder Research (2015), there are around
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10,000 accounted for homeless in Minnesota. That number has been steadily growing. The

result of the survey does not truly represent the actual number of the homeless, as some of them

cant participate in the polls. Many individuals are hiding, or are not easily accessible in one

location. Transiency can be the result of many different problems whether it be their fault or an

external force. But no matter who someone are or where they happen to be from, everyone

deserve a home.

What Does it Mean to be Homeless?

For the simple definition, homelessness can be defined as simply not having a

home, but it can get much more complicated than that. Not every homeless person looks beat

up, carries all his stuff and smells bad. Actually, most of those without homes look like

everyone else. As stated by Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act, anyone without a

permanent source of housing is considered homeless, whether it is a college friend that sleeps

on one of their friends couches, or someone who has a temporary housing situation. This

broadens the view on who needs help in Minnesota.

How does someone become homeless?

There are a great deal of ways to become homeless, and each way has its own

struggles. The most popular of these reasons is that housing in Minnesota is too expensive. This

accounts for 46% of homelessness. The common wait time for a house is 11 months. There are

also 14% of people that cant even get on the waiting list for available public housing as stated

by Wilder Research (2015). This means that nearly half of the problem is due to people not

having enough money to afford the modern day expensive housing. Even if someone could find

enough money to pay a downpayment on a house, they could still be out on the streets waiting

for a year or longer. Another big contributor to displaced people is violence, specifically
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domestic violence. As stated by Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless(2013), 46 percent of

homeless women report staying in an abusive relationship because they had nowhere else to

live. This is because the abuser, typically the man, weakens the abused financially thus making

them ineligible for other options such as housing departments or finding their own home. Pair

this with the expensive and the ever shrinking government funding for housing, the abused are

stuck in a cycle of abuse with little to no ways of getting out. Domestic abuse resulting from a

bad housing situation, impacts both women and children which can make this a bigger problem

than most realize.

Domestic violence doesnt just affect women, it often involves children as well. Whether

they are forced out of their homes by parents or just want to leave, children under 18 can easily

end up in the streets in almost any type of neighborhood. According to the U.S. Department of

Health & Human Services(2012) 15.5 million youth endure domestic violence every year. Most

of these children are accompanied by their mother, with their father completely out of the

picture. These mother-child pairs make up 50% of all homeless in Minnesota. Although they

represent half of the homeless population, they do not have nearly enough shelters to house

them. As if these issues werent enough, adding race, mental or physical problems makes it

much more complicated.

Race has an impact in all aspects of life, especially homelessness. African americans

make up 39% of all Minnesota homeless. This is a problem because only 5% of the Minnesota

population is African american.When talking about homelessness, race is often the elephant in

the room. But no matter how much we avoid it, the blunt reality is that black Americans are

greatly overrepresented in homeless shelters across the United States. In 2010, one out of every

141 black family members sought refuge in a homeless shelter, a rate seven times higher than
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members of white families. (Nunez, 2012) Further compounding this troubling racial statistic,

individuals experience discrimination from a variety of different places. But why? Well,

homelessness boils down to a poverty issue, there are 23% of black families living in poverty,

which is 3 times the poverty rate for white families(7%). Families in poverty are only a few bad

financial choices away from living on the street or something like it. On the other hand,

children, specifically black males, tend to have a lack of education which can create barriers to

finding jobs and maintaining a steady income. Low income families are generally isolated into

residentially segregated areas with minimal opportunities, higher crime rate and limited

resources. Although race may cause barriers with some people, there is a bigger contributor to

this issue.

Mental and physical problems are the second biggest benefactors to homelessness

behind unaffordable housing. Poor health issues play a huge active part in the homeless

population. 57% of the homeless have been diagnosed with serious mental issues and 51% with

serious physical issues. Both extremely limiting in terms of doing basic tasks. With physical

injuries it can start out as just an injury, but it can quickly escalate to an unemployment

problem. Not having a job doesnt just mean no money or nowhere to go during the day, it also

takes someone off the health insurance, which can much worse consequences than being laid

off. Not being able to pay for medical bills makes recovery either impossible or take way too

long. What was once an injury is now a brand new scary reality that just keeps getting worse.

Now mental illness is a little different. Although there are hundreds of mental illnesses the

outcome can be similar in many cases. The scary thing with a mental issue is that even if the

person has a loving family and places to stay they can still end up on the street. This is because

they can have problems trusting even the closest of family members, or they dont even realize
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there is a problem until its way too late. Studies and polls have shown that substance abuse

represents 40% of all mental illness. But whats special about substance abuse and homelessness

is that one doesnt come first. Addiction can lead someone to be homeless but being out on the

streets exposes an individual to a whole new world of unconventional coping methods. Being

addicted to a drug is a nasty thing. Not having a steady income and a roof over someones head

can make the issue much much worse. Also being so caught up with getting their next fix

weakens their relations with family and friends, leaving them alone when it comes to getting

help. According to a study done in 2008 by United States Conference of Mayors shows 68% of

all homelessness in adults was caused by substance abuse, and 13% was found in families.

Major struggles of Being Homeless

There are many ways to end up on the streets, but what struggles do people who

dont have a home face everyday? For starters, specific to Minnesota is the weather. For the

local homeless, finding shelter for the 7 cold months of the year is a must. But when they cant

find a place to turn to they can really get stuck in one place. When the overwhelmed shelters are

forced to turn down people they are forced to stay out on the cold streets, where they are

exposed to temperature induced illnesses such as hypothermia and frostbite. Even just one of

these illnesses is enough to be life threatening. So to prevent themselves from getting one of

these possibly deadly disease is to buy more clothes to keep warm. But with spending money on

an essential like clothing, comes lacking resources for other important things such as overnight

housing or food some days. Weather stands to be one of the most dangerous factors for

Minnesota homeless.

Out of all homeless in Minnesota, families represent 50%, and taking care of the child is

the most important thing to a family. The biggest struggle with having a child is of course, the
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extra mouth to feed, but what people dont seem to think about is how the child has to be with

the parents all the time. Whether the parent is applying for a job or going to an unsafe

neighborhood the child has to be brought with, creating both a struggle for the parent but also

hurting the child in terms of development and safety.

Solutions to Homelessness

Although these seem like big complicated problems, some of the answers are pretty

simple. These problems arent new, there has been attempts to end homelessness in the previous

years, such as the United States Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

(ARRA) in February 2009, which includes $1.5 billion for homelessness prevention and re-

housing (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2009). There is also a homeless bill of rights

which was issued to help those already homeless. But the real way to end homelessness is to

prevent it from happening in the first place.

Starting with the biggest reason people are on the streets, expensive housing. Since

housing can fix most problems among the homeless it should be the one fixed first. To make

housing affordable the government needs to move small amounts of money from unnecessary

funds from smaller problems or from drug addiction treatment centers. They could take money

from those centers because long term housing has proven very effective to treating substance

abuse among homeless. Another proven solution developed in New York City and replicated

nationwide is the housing first approach to street homelessness, which builds on the success

of permanent supportive housing. The housing first approach involves moving long-term

street homeless individuals the majority of whom are living with mental illness, substance

abuse disorders and other serious health problems directly into subsidized housing and then

linking them to support services, either on-site or in the community.(Coalition for the Homeless,
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2014) Even funding a couple more housing facilities would decrease the number of homeless

immensely.

Although affordable housing would fix most problems, finding jobs and education for

homeless children is still a major issue. Finding or creating education programs for children of

homeless families would both help the family short and long term. Having the child go

somewhere during the day would both help the parents find a more stable job and also help the

child with their future. Compared to the amounts of money that the government spends on

programs that are not as important or big, this would be very cheap yet very effective for

keeping people off the street.

Conclusion

The idea of homelessness isnt something very far out, it really is in every

neighborhood. People can struggle with many different things whether homeless or not.

Whether it be racial discrimination, substance abuse or a mental or physical issue, we all know

someone who is affected by all of these. Helping others with these problems is something we all

should do, because we never know how close someone could be to living out on the street

themselves.

References
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1. Nunez, R. D. (2016, March/April). Homelessness: It's About Race, Not Just Poverty. Retrieved

November 27, 2016, from http://citylimits.org/2012/03/05/homelessness-its-about-race-not-just-poverty/

2. @. (n.d.). The Facts About Family Homelessness | Doorways. Retrieved November 27, 2016, from

https://www.doorwaysva.org/our-work/education-advocacy/the-facts-about-family-homelessness/

3. Proven Solutions - Coalition For The Homeless. (2012). Retrieved November 28, 2016, from

http://www.coalitionforthehomeless.org/ending-homelessness/proven-solutions/

4. @. (n.d.). Homeless children: One local family's struggle to overcome poverty. Retrieved November 28, 2016, from

http://www.fox19.com/story/25453840/homeless-children-one-local-familys-struggle-to-overcome-poverty

5. 2006 (1999) EBSCO publishing service selection page. (Accessed: 29 November 2016). Available at:

http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=61a54bf8-7038-4d9c-b0bf-606893e9e4cc

%40sessionmgr102&vid=9&hid=128

6. Christof (2014) Homelessness. (Accessed: 29 November 2016). Available at: http://www.wilder.org/Wilder-

Research/Research-Areas/Homelessness/Pages/default.aspx

7. minnesota coalition for the homeless (2013) (Accessed: 22 November 2016). Available at:

http://www.mnhomelesscoalition.org/

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