- Wages should be high enough for people to afford housing, food, clothing, medical care, and other necessities of life.
- People who are not able to work should be able to have a sustainable income to afford housing, food, clothing, medical care, and other necessities of life.
Truth...
- Wages are not charity. Wages must be a direct measure of a person's contribution to a product or service that must be sold at a profit in a competitive market. Each person's abilities, training, and attitude toward their work determines their wages earned. Wages are not the problem. The Truth is that once a person becomes homeless, their ability to work is greatly impaired, from lack of sleep to unhealthy environment that creates illness, to transportation problems, all of which then affect a homeless person's Attitude...after losing job after job after job...you lose hope. Don't blame businesses for not paying enough. Deal with the Truth and we can resolve homelessness. How do I know? I talk personally with hundreds of homeless each and every week.
"Minimum Wage" arguments have been obsolete for decades. American wages have been much higher than the Minimum, except for the Entry Level jobs they were designed for, to train teens entering the work force. "Training Wage" is a more accurate and descriptive term than "Minimum Wage". The Minimum Wage decreasing in "real value" has nothing to do with the "real wages" of $7-$12 per hour being paid for unskilled labor, and $15 - $18 per hour is the wage for skilled labor in America.
- Americans have bought into the lie that "40 hours" is the work week, and just stopped working. God said man should work 6 days weekly. There are 15 hours each and every day man is not sleeping or eating. Working 6 of those 15 hour days makes 90 hours available to work. The 40 hour work week lie is actually a life threatening attitude problem the poor cannot afford. Working 60 or 70 hour weeks would resolve the poverty issues in 2-3 years. Homeless persons having to line up at a shelter by 5:30 p.m. or risk freezing to death overnight cannot work the hours they need to pull themselves out of poverty! Further, the Mental Health decline for homeless persons is constant and consistent...they get worse, not better, so we have to help them sooner in the homeless cycle to prevent them from declining into being "chronic", those who have lost all hope and are just waiting around to die.
The Truth is that Americans must provide opportunity for homeless persons to have decent shelter, to have adequate rest so they can work 60-70 hours, then train them to work instead of play until they are financially stable and can actually afford to take time to play. Of course, they must also have Mental Health care and case management support to overcome the trauma of homelessness that you and I can only imagine.
(click here to download this factsheet in .pdf format)
Homelessness and poverty are inextricably linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income, that must be given up. Being poor can mean that one is an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from homelessness.
Employment:
Primary reasons for increasing homelessness include stagnant or falling incomes and less secure jobs which offer fewer benefits. Lower-wage workers have been particularly hard hit by wage trends and have been left behind as the disparity between rich and poor has grown. In sum, for many people, work provides no escape from poverty.
- Since 1975, the real value of the minimum wage has fallen by 25%.
- Declining wages, in turn, have put housing out of reach for many workers: in every state, no one earning minimum wage can afford a one or two-bedroom apartment at Fair Market Rent (FMR).
- In order to afford to rent a two-bedroom home at the nationally-weighted FMR, a worker would have to earn $14.66 per hour, which is nearly three times the federal minimum wage, and still more than double the highest minimum wage among states that have enacted higher minimum wages. (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2002). (Note: The $8 - $12 per hour wage for unskilled labor in the South is adequate to live above the poverty level.)
- 4.9 million households suffer from worse case housing needs, which is understood to be unassisted renters living below 50 percent of area median income and paying over half their income for housing (HUD).
- Overall, 15 million families have critical housing needs and 28 million Americans are paying more than 30 percent of their limited incomes on housing.
The connection between impoverished workers and homelessness can be seen in homeless shelters, many of which house significant numbers of full-time wage earners.
- Approximately 42% of people experiencing homelessness are employed (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2001).
- Many of these workers are employed by day labor agencies, an industry characterized by low pay, no job security, no health insurance, and inadequate worker protections.
The future of job growth does not appear promising for many workers.
- The economy is experiencing the worst hiring slump in 20 years (New York Times, 2003). (In the Spring of 2005, this was proven to be an "Election Lie".
- 46% of the jobs with the most growth between 1994 and 2005 pay less than $16,000 a year; these jobs will not lift families out of poverty (National Priorities Project, 1998). ("With the most growth" is deceiving. This was another "Election Lie", although America must expect job loss from the entire shut down of our air travel infrastructure and travel industry from the 911 acts of war on our own soil.)
- 74% of these jobs pay below a livable wage (which allows for local housing costs at 30% of that wage).
Public Assistance:
Housing stability leads to employment stability, yet states have not, so far, replaced outdated welfare policies with ones that enable families and individuals to obtain above-poverty employment or benefit levels that sustain them when work is not available or possible.
The declining value of public assistance is a prime source of increasing poverty and homelessness.
- The entitlement to welfare programs ended in 1996 when Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) was repealed and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act was enacted. AFDC was replaced with a block grant, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).
- Current median TANF benefits for a family of three are approximately one third of the poverty level, thus, contrary to public opinion, welfare does not provide relief from poverty.
Although welfare caseloads have dropped dramatically since the implementation of TANF, there are serious concerns that declining welfare rolls have not translated into economic security for those moving out of welfare and into work.
- Income levels for previous welfare recipients have not increased over five years; most of the employment they find pays at or below the federal poverty level (Joyce Foundation, 2002).
- The sanction policies of many states are not taking into consideration the housing status of welfare recipients, and many homeless families are being sanctioned off welfare without such consideration.
- Almost by definition, TANF recipients are eligible for subsidized housing programs; however, only 25% of TANF families actually receive any form of subsidized housing.
- Although TANF is a "work-first" program, very little attention has been paid to the housing stability of welfare to work recipients.
Sources:
Joyce Foundation. Welfare to Work: What Have We Learned, 2002. Available at www.joycefdn.org.
New York Times, "U.S. Economy in Worst Hiring Slump in Decades." 2003.
National Coalition for the Homeless. Welfare to What II, 2001. Available from the National Coalition for the Homeless, 1012 Fourteenth Street, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC; 202/737-6444, www.nationalhomeless.org.
National Low Income Housing Coalition. Out of Reach: Rental Housing at What Cost?, 2002. Available from the National Low Income Housing Coalition at 1012 14th Street, Suite 610, Washington, DC 20005; 202/662-1530, www.nlihc.org.
National Priorities Project and Jobs with Justice. Working Hard, Earning Less: The Future of Job Growth in America, 1998. Available from the National Priorities Project, 17 New South Street, Suite 301, Northampton, MA 01060; 414/584-9556.