When I think of poverty in a global sense, I imagine slums like the shantytowns of Nairobi or the favelas of Sao Paulo. I see rickety shacks precariously hugging dirt hills and sad-looking children drinking dirty water.
Never would I imagine that America’s two largest cities rank among the top five cities worldwide with the largest homeless populations. Los Angeles is ranked third, just behind second-ranked New York City.
Manila, the capital of the Philippines, holds the top spot with the largest homeless population in the world. The important distinction between cities like Manila and those in first-world countries is that poorer nations don’t have the resources to house their homeless citizens.
Wealthier countries, like America, do.
What does it say when the United States—which has enough funds to build a house for every single person in the country, never mind every person who is homeless in New York City and Los Angeles—allows its citizens to languish on the streets?
If I were living in Manila’s P. Casal District, one of the city’s poorest districts, I would probably not be nearly as resentful as I would be if I were a homeless person living in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California, overlooking million dollar mansions.
Imagine sleeping under the bushes next to a home that could comfortably hold several dozen people. Imagine being homeless in a country that spends more money invading other countries than on making sure its citizens have somewhere to live.
When those of us working on the front lines of homelessness look to provide hope for the people we serve, we typically assume their hopelessness is rooted in living on the streets. But I think part of that hopelessness, at least in America, is caused by the knowledge that our country could end their homelessness at any time. If I were homeless today in Los Angeles, I would feel rejected and isolated from a society that has turned its back on me.
How could you not feel cast off when society puts the blame for homelessness on the victims? You’re just lazy. You’re an addict. You’re crazy. Get a job! Pull yourself up by your bootstraps!
Where is the compassion? We only seem to be able to convince this country to invest in addressing homelessness by appealing to its business sense. By saying, “it costs more to leave a person on the street than to house him.” Then those that blame people for being homeless are forced to address homelessness because it is better for the economy.
Who cares about the actual people living on the streets? Money is the most important.
Maybe that attitude is the reason the richest country in the world has two of its largest, most renowned cities on the list of cities with the highest homeless populations.
Not a proud distinction.
