Poll Supports More Spending on Homeless
Many Americans deny firsthand knowledge of homelessness and blame it mainly on tough breaks or bad economic luck, an Associated Press poll has found.
A majority of the respondents, 54%, say their knowledge of the homeless is based on news reports or word of mouth. Fewer than half say their knowledge of the homeless is a result of something they have seen or dealt with in person.
Only 15% know someone who has become homeless in the last year. That measure of Americans’ scant firsthand knowledge of the problem holds true for all income groups, and drops to 10% in non-metropolitan areas and to 7% among Americans over 65.
But polls over the years have shown Americans want the government to do more to help the homeless. In January, for example, a CBS News-New York Times Poll found 71% saying the Bush Administration had not shown enough concern.
In the current poll, 58% said federal spending on helping the homeless should be increased. That is not a significant change from the 60% who provided the same answer in a Media General-Associated Press poll in November, 1988.
This time, 75% of those who wanted increased spending saidthey would be willing to pay more taxes for it, compared with 86% two years ago.
The overall acceptance rate for a tax increase to help the homeless has dropped from 52% to 44%, perhaps because of the economic downturn.
One out of seven Americans rate as likely the chances that they or a member of their family could become homeless in the coming year. But only 4% rated it very likely and 67% rated it not at all likely.
The total answering very likely or somewhat likely was 19% in the South and West, compared with 5% in the Northeast and 14% in the north-central states. It was 20% for women, compared with 9% for men.
A gender gap also showed up in measuring attitudes toward the homeless.
Among men, 21% agreed that “the homeless themselves are mainly at fault because of their unwillingness to work or their behavior, such as alcohol or drug use.” Only 13% of the women agreed, making the overall total 17%.
Twenty percent of men and 21% of women agreed that “our society is mainly at fault because we do not provide sufficient housing for them.”
Thirty-eight percent of the men and 45% of the women said a third statement best reflected their attitude: “Neither the homeless nor society is mainly at fault because they become homeless through tough breaks or bad economic luck.”
Overall, 41% agreed with the tough-luck explanation of homelessness, while 17% volunteered the answer that both the homeless and society are mainly at fault for the problem.
The survey of 1,004 adults was conducted Dec. 5-9 by ICR Survey Research Group of Media, Pa., part of AUS Consultant Cos.
The poll used a random-sampling method that generally should produce results accurate to within 3 percentage points. When responses are broken down by age or income, the margin of error increases as the subgroups get smaller.
