Jay's World of Abstracts 00026
Housing Is a Human Right
by Ken Smith, Director of the Delaware Housing Coalition
[Standard disclaimer: The nature of abstracts are that they
are pieces of something larger. Not everyone is going to be happy with
my choice of abstracts from any larger work, so if you are
dissatisfied, I would refer you to the original document, which should
be able to be found on the Internet. I encourage others to make their
own abstracts to satisfy their needs. I would be happy to publish them
here.
Jay's Introduction
I often abstract ideas that I don't agree with, such as most
of what Ken Smith advocates for in this article. I do think there is
great value in knowing the issues around poverty if you hope to really
help the poor, which ends up being one of our main target groups. Many
problems that affect the quality of life for our citizens come from the
financial cost of just living in America and how well we can either
meet those costs or live without some things. Mr. Smith is pretty much
presenting the stock "liberal" view of the housing problem and proposed
solutions.
I produced this abstract using time paid for by the Quay
County Maternal Child and Community Health Council with funds from the
New Mexico Department of Health.
Abstracts
Two recent reports by the National Coalition for the Homeless point to
this deterioration of the national discussion and treatment of the
homeless.
The Homeless Among Us
The first, Illegal to be Homeless: The Criminalization of Homelessness
in the United States focuses on the possible responses to the problem
of criminalizing homeless people for performing ordinary acts in public
because they have no homes in which to carry them out. The report
(available in full at www.nationalhomeless.org ) is published by the
Coalition for the Homeless and the National Law Center on Homelessness
& Poverty. It reflects the growing concern and activity of both
organizations about the civil rights of the homeless. One of the major
recommendations is the inclusion of socio-economic status as a
protected class under the Fair Housing Act.
Its Executive Summary reads: "Across the nation, there are few homeless
men, women and children, who don't have to fear being criminalized for
their poverty. Cities are exacerbating homelessness under the pretense
of "revitalizing their neighborhoods." Local governments are creating a
national trend of scapegoating homeless and poor people instead of
providing permanent exits from homelessness and poverty, such as
affordable housing, health services and a living wage. Worse still, the
increasingly-profitable private prison industry uses homeless people as
grist for the labor mill that replaces the predatory labor pools."
The United States has been a signatory to such historic documents as
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Concluding
Document of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe, which
recognize, in the words of the latter, that "promotion of economic,
social, cultural rights as well as of civil and political rights is of
paramount importance for human dignity and for the attainment of the
legitimate aspirations of every individual."
Seen from this vantage point, the imperative to address the civil
rights of the poor and homeless is simply a demand to live up to our
own values. A permanent class of excluded families and individuals has
become an accepted reality of American life. Until socio-economic
equality is addressed, the need to ensure the civil rights of those
excluded from the ability to perform ordinary daily activities of
living is not just a token requirement. We have moved from intolerance
of homelessness to intolerance of the presence of the homeless.
The Discussion of Homelessness
The other is Poverty Versus Pathology: What's "Chronic" About
Homelessness. It raised questions about the current terminological
vogue for discussion of "chronic" homelessness. It is a term which
usually conjures up images of mental illness, addiction, and the
repeated episodes of homelessness. NCH also objects to the term because
it has been inserted as a categorical preference into the Continuum of
Care funding process, which is supposed to be driven by local needs and
priorities. The most important objection to the use of the term
"chronic homelessness" is that it leads us away from a clearer
examination of the nature and causes of homelessness. The term "chronic
homeless" treats homelessness with the same language, and in the same
fashion, as a medical condition or disease, rather than an experience
caused fundamentally by poverty and lack of affordable housing. This
move to pathologize homelessness via a new, stigmatizing terminology
ignores the history and causes, which are fundamentally economic and
not medical in nature. It also disregards current social and economic
trends, and is especially misguided at a time when the affordable
housing gap is at a record high, the economic recession is forcing many
people out of work, and many families are struggling to meet welfare
requirements in the face of impending time limits.
Some Ways Forward
Defend Human Rights: There either exists a right to
housing and a minimum income or there does not. And if not, it follows
that the right to be poor and homeless and still not be mistreated does
exist.
Organize: Find ways to work with and among the homeless. Identify and
address the causes and the concerns of those most directly affected.
Welcome Their Presence: We are fortunate to be stopped by one asking
for change or see one seeking shelter in the bus stop enclosure next to
us. If not, we would be living in a way that is out of touch with
reality as whole.
Resist Efforts to Filter: language can create mis-impressions. The
National Coalition of the Homeless objects to the use of the term
"chronic homeless" - implies we don't need to care as much. The term
"continuum of care " implies that everything is under control.
Institutions and programs can mediate our relationship to the poor and
the homeless, filtering out its reality.
Avoid False Charity: Homelessness is the result of
an unjust social order. In The Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Paulo Freire
made the distinction between false charity (which distinguishes between
the helper and the helped and can increase and perpetuate the divide
between them) and true generosity. "True generosity," which Freire
juxtaposed with false charity, "consists precisely in fighting to
destroy the causes which nourish false charity. False charity
constrains the fearful and subdued, the 'rejects of life,' to extend
their trembling hands. True generosity lies in striving so that these
hands - whether of individuals or of entire peoples - need be extended
less and less in supplication, so that more and more they become human
hands with work ... [to] transform the world."
Build the Permanent Housing Continuum: The Low
Income Housing Tax Credit program creates too few units (still not
affordable to the most vulnerable). Assisted housing contracts are
expiring. Public housing authorities are looking for ways to divest
themselves of older properties. In Delaware there appears to be less
room for the poor except in temporary, rent-burdened, substandard, and
precarious housing situations.
Promote
a Living Wage: If we have indeed entered a new
world where everyone works, then the issue of a wage that sustains a
person in the cheapest housing available is an unavoidable discussion.
Today, an efficiency apartment living wage in Delaware should be
slightly over $9.00 an hour.
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