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The Homeless and the Pandemic
This country has lived through a constant low-level crisis that the pandemic exposed for all to see. We have levels of inequality not seen since the late 1920s. We also see housing insecurity. Homelessness is now seen as a threat, because people who are not sheltered may spread the virus. During normal times they are mostly invisible. However, we are not living in normal times. And I expect this population to explode over the next six months. Why? We have ten million newly minted out of work Americans. This is the sharpest growth in this statistics in the history of the country. Of course, statistics are far more precise these days. Comparisons to the Great Depression are appropriate, and people fell into desperate poverty for ten years. This crisis may very well trigger a Great Depression, globally.
Moreover, we saw the growth of homelessness during the Great Depression, and we are about to get slammed with people losing their homes to no fault of their own. They already have lost their jobs, to no fault of their own.
The homeless population also grew during the Great Recession, and while it ebbed somewhat, it has never gone away. In fact, an argument can be made that it started to be a problem during the Ronald Reagan presidency after state mental hospitals were closed. This leads to one of the serious impressions. No, not all people in the streets have a mental…