Every state surveyed in recent years reported increasing demand for services for the homeless; most cite the growing needs of homeless families with children. It's estimated that at least 1.35 million children are homeless in any given year. Families with children are among the fastest growing segments of the homeless population. Forty-two percent of homeless children are under 6 years old.
Some 40 percent of the homeless are families, and the population of homeless families has increased by 35 percent since 1989. Between 70 and 90 percent of homeless families in America are headed by women. Eighty-nine percent of the homeless mothers have been physically and/or sexually abused.
It is morally unacceptable for even one person to be homeless in America, but the homelessness of families is perhaps the worst example of the immorality of the market economy. How can we tolerate this? How can we abandon women to the streets to be raped or forced into prostitution? How can we leave young children in the streets and the dangerous shelter system, deprived of education and health care, and robbed of their childhood?
Enough is enough! It's time we demand that the government outlaw homelessness and take responsibility for providing housing for everyone who needs it, regardless of ability to pay. Other countries have passed laws making housing an enforceable right. Scotland is one example. And in France in recent months, the homeless and their supporters took their case to the streets, and they got a response. Beginning at Christmas, they set up tent cities in the middle of Paris and a dozen other cities, demanding that the government act to house them. They invited people who had homes to come out and sleep alongside them in the tents, and hundreds did so. Homeless people moved into the top five floors of an empty bank building in Paris, declaring it the "Ministry of Crisis Housing."
Faced with public support for the homeless, the prime minister was forced to propose a new law making housing a legal right for at least some sections of the population. Under the proposed plan, by the end of 2008 the state would be legally bound to provide housing for the most disadvantaged, including single mothers and people forced to live in unsafe housing. The law would apply to everyone by 2012. The prime minister called for the construction of 120,000 housing units a year through 2012.
It's only a start, and still only promises -- France's homeless say they will stay on guard until they actually get housing. But it shows what can be done through people finding their true morality, and being willing to struggle. America's homeless are already fighting for their rights, and have been for years. Their struggle is moving to a new stage today, and every worker must stand alongside them.
Surely we can do at least as well in America as they are doing in France. The $410 billion spent on the Iraq war so far could build more than 3.6 million housing units. We have the money, we just have to force the government to do what is right -- provide a home for everyone who needs one.
Homelessness is simply the worst expression of the poverty being produced by a failing market economy. People are becoming homeless because workers are losing their jobs to high technology. Having no job in a market economy means you can end up homeless, even though there is plenty of housing. We could easily house everyone, but the market economy stands in the way. The basic demand of the poor is clear: distribute things according to need. By standing alongside the poorest among us and uniting with their demands, we can reclaim our real morality and put our country on a course to truly becoming a country of, by and for the people.
