The other Side of the Grass Poverty in America

Homelessness in the US is higher than its been in decades, and assistance from the government seems to be getting weaker. The Federal and State governments must do more to reduce the rates of homelessness or its only going to get worse. In 2017 appropriately 17 out of 10,000 people were experiencing homelessness on any given night. "the overall number of people experiencing homelessness increased nationally by 0.7 percent between 2016 and 2017."

In the District of Columbia 109.7 out of 10,000 people are experiencing homelessness. In the district the number of homeless people have dropped by 7.6 percent. This number is, however, higher than it was 5 years ago it had continued to drop for the second year in a row. "Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) pledged to address homelessness during her 2014 campaign and has implemented a politically risky plan to close main family shelter at the site of D.C. General Hospital and replace it with smaller shelters spread throughout the city." (washingtonpost). They have also chosen to focus more on homeless families and get them off the streets since 2015. While homelessness as a whole declined families and single adult homelessness rose by 5.2 percent. The D.C Department of Human Services, Kristy Greenwalt said, "The city plans to redevelop its single shelters which some homeless men and women avoid, saying they are dangerous or dirty and improve the intake process for single people." (washingtonpost).

Mississippi has the lowest amount of homelessness sitting at 4.9 out of 10,000 people. There has been a 15 percent decline since 2016. Mary Simons works for Open Door Homeless Coalition states says there are more resources and that they are targeted to help people move into housing and making sure they have what they need to be able to stay in that housing. Veteran homeless has declined in the state of Mississippi by 60 percent since 2016.

According to Mo’s Heroes there are over 120,000 homeless Veterans in the US and under 8,000 funded beds for homeless veterans. California, Florida, Texas, and New York make up almost half the population of homeless Veterans in the US. "The "Big 4" locations for Veteran homeless population can be directly correlated to states with a large number of military bases." (Veteransactionnetwork). Sitting at 11 percent from 442,723 homeless Veterans are former members of the US Armed Forces. Women tend to get cut short of their needs when they come back to civilization. "The DAV reports that one-third of all VA Medical Centers have a gynecologist on staff. Simply put, the established institutions for Veterans exclusive serve male Veterans because males have traditionally dominated military service" (VAN). There are approximately 950 VA hospitals and clinics in the US and only 77 of them are women’s centers. Women are more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and musculoskeletal damage, pain in the back, knees, and hips. While a lot of Veterans suffer from pain and mental health issues from their service females are failed on being provided adequate services to deal with their issues.

Once again New York hold another high percentage of homeless. This time it’s the youth population. "New York State is home to two-thirds of all homeless students in the Northeast" (icphusa.org). In the national capital it grew 66 percent in 3 years, rural areas grew 11 percent, and Minnesota grew 50 percent. There are over 1.3 million American public school students homeless.

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