Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Homelessness in Minnesota
Theo M. Keller
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.
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
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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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
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
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.
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
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
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
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
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
Research/Research-Areas/Homelessness/Pages/default.aspx
7. minnesota coalition for the homeless (2013) (Accessed: 22 November 2016). Available at:
http://www.mnhomelesscoalition.org/