Homelessness in America: A Failed State of Affairs

Richard S Dunn - August 3, 2021

The Federal Eviction Moratorium expired on July 31, 2021 and Congress went on Summer recess, without passing an extension to the moratorium. With the Moratorium expired, millions of people are faced with eviction and with an already limited housing stock and overcrowded shelters; the quantity of homeless families will increase tremendously. With Congress going on recess without passing an extension to the Moratorium, it’s a reflection of imperialist arrogance, indifference and inhumanity. It is an example of a failed system of individualism and corporate greed that, secures the comfort of the White and rich at the expense of the poor masses; Black and White.

The Coalition For The Homeless in its State of The Homeless 2021 report has cited that more than 14,000 people were sleeping in shelters in New York in February 2020 including 21,000 children; when the Pandemic hit in March of 2020, 61,000 people were sleeping in shelters. In order to amplify this national humanitarian crisis, Congresswoman Cori Bush and some supporters have been sleeping on the steps of the Capitol since Friday July 30, 2021; in a Time Magazine section called Ideas, Rep. Bush said of the Moratorium: “The eviction Moratorium must not only be extended, but strengthened to protect vulnerable renters and their families…As elected Lawmakers, we have a solemn duty and obligation to develop and enact Policies that will permanently end the unhoused crisis.” Homelessness in the United States is not a new phenomenon; homelessness in the United States is not a condition that has been brought on my outside forces. Homelessness is a structural weakness and a material manifestation of the failure of capitalism, the most inhumane socio-economic system. A system that structurally is incapable of providing and sustaining the basic needs of the masses. This is the “failed State” that Biden should be talking about; anything else is political and intellectual buffoonery.

The Pandemic have worsened and have shown in bold relief the growing disparity between those who create the wealth and those who disproportionately appropriate that wealth. The Pandemic have worsened the basic living conditions of the most vulnerable of the society, the poor masses and, especially people of color. People do not choose to be homeless and in a society divided into race and class, there are a number of reasons that forces homelessness: lack of affordable housing; menial wages; evictions; outsourcing by Companies especially in the field of manufacturing; job loss and lay-offs; domestic violence and mental health issues among others. Many Federal and State politicians have trivialized the severity of the homeless crisis and have tried to shift the blame on the victims. The corporate media as agents of capitalist propaganda is complicit in this trivialization and, has served as apologists and defenders of a failed and decadent system of exploitation and racism.

It is to her credit that Rep. Cori Bush has introduced a Resolution in the House titled the Unhoused Bill of Rights; although not the ‘end all’ solution to the housing crisis, it offers some significant reforms to the issue and, help in providing some reprieve to the victims of homelessness. The full Resolution can be found at https://bush.house.gov/media/press-releases

The permanent solution to the homeless crisis rests in a dismantling of the socio-economic system to benefit the masses who, create the wealth of the society. In the meantime the working-class have to organize and struggle for democratic reforms such as an increase in the minimum wage nationally; a ‘living wage’ Bill must be enacted; there must be an end to the criminalization of the homeless, the arbitrary and frivolous arrests must stop; the Section 8 program should be extended and needy families given easier access to its resources; many homeless people refuse to stay at the shelters because of safety concerns, these need to be addressed and corrected; there needs to be more investment in affordable housing stock through Tax incentive programs; increase mental health services by providing more trained personnel, outreach programs and counseling and ready access to health care.

The funding of an extensive homelessness eradication program is affordable and within reach of the Federal government; the continued obscene increase in the military budget can pay the cost to fully overhaul the housing situation. If the United States also ceases its subsidies and handouts to corrupt, genocidal and oppressive regimes and stop its covert actions in foreign countries to force regime change, it will find the money to meaningfully address the homeless crisis in the Country.

Richard Dunn can be contacted at: contact@makingitplain.net