Population of homeless women, children grows in US: Writer

The fastest growing populations of homeless people in the United States are women and children, says American writer and activist Mickey Z.

The author of Occupy This Book and Occupy These Photos made the remarks in an interview with Press TV on Sunday while commenting on reports which say an increasing number of US cities are declaring states of emergency as homelessness is becoming more prevalent and a serious issue to deal with.

The cities of Portland, Oregon; Denver, Colorado; and Seattle, Washington as well as the entire state of Hawaii have become the latest to take drastic measures to fight the crisis.

“Addressing homelessness requires us to recognize how it disproportionately impacts specific groups of humans. For example, those living with mental illness or other health problems. Poverty and health issues have become so intertwined that cause often becomes effect,” Mickey Z. said.

“It’s been found that poverty - defined as living below 200 percent of the United Stated Federal Poverty Level - was determined to take away 8.2 years of health, meaning poor people have 8.2 fewer years in which they are healthy than someone above 200 percent of the poverty line,” he added.

“Disabilities – directly linked to poverty or not – leave American children vulnerable to a lifetime of financial difficulties. Over 40 million people in the US have some level of disability and are likely to have limited opportunities to earn income and often have increased medical expenses. Many of them live in poverty,” he noted.

“In addition, there are the intrinsic ethnic and racial disparities, as approximately 53 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents are African-American, and 32 percent are Latino. Meanwhile, roughly 49 percent of New Yorkers are white but whites comprise only 7 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents,” the activist said.

Mickey Z. said “The fastest growing population of homeless, however, are women and children. Among homeless families, 90 percent are female-headed and it’s estimated that as many as half of them become homeless as a direct result of escaping domestic violence.”

“We all know the ‘official’ response to this preventable nightmare. But, we wonder, where can we start when confronting poverty, homelessness, gentrification, and the demonization and marginalization of those impacted?” he stated.

“In a culture that relentlessly warns us the homeless are lazy, the homeless are ‘crazy,’ the homeless are dangerous, the homeless are lurking in every dark alley or just waiting to push us in front of a subway train, I submit that it’s downright revolutionary to reject this indoctrination and connect. Start a conversation. Make a friend. Refuse to remain silent when someone demonizes the homeless. Name and discuss the underlying conditions and hierarchies that enable a social order that treats most lives as expendable,” he argued.

“The powers-that-be are counting on us – depending on us – to be too scared or indifferent to make this happen but quite often, momentous social changes begin with revelatory changes in perception. The choice is ours,” Mickey Z. concluded.

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