PLATFORM : Legislative Homelessness

When asked what she liked best about being in our shelter, an 8-year-old replied, “Because I don’t have to go to the bathroom in the bushes at the park anymore.” It should not come as a surprise to the sensitive observer that more and more children in families are joining the ranks of the homeless. However, it is all too common to search for the causes of this growing problem in such personal problems as divorce, desertion and “personal misfortune.”

But the real reason for this alarming increase in families becoming homeless is much much more pervasive than personal failings. For in fact we are all failing. Our national failure to deal with growing poverty (even in the midst of an expanding economy in the 1980s) is the principal underlying cause of increasing homelessness.

More and more Americans are living in poverty and all of us continue to elect political leaders who push to balance shrinking budgets on the backs of those least able to carry the load--the poor and the homeless.

This is strikingly illustrated by the recent state cuts in Aid to Families with Dependent Children and the family-targeted Homeless Assistance Program. These severe cuts will clearly cause more families to become homeless in California. This is not “personal misfortune,” this is legislative homelessness.

The ancient Greeks had a saying: “There will be no justice in Athens until the uninjured parties are as indignant as the injured parties.” How many more poor and homeless Americans will it take for us to reverse the war against the poor that has become American social policy? How many more children with bathrooms in the bushes will it take for us to become outraged enough to demand a change?