Homeless numbers way up. Wilder Research
This morning, the Star-Tribune reminded me that homeless continues to grow in Minnesota.
The article focused on homeless youth, recounting how abandoned and neglected teens sleep on buses, under bridges, or even in port-a-potties. I honestly don’t understand how anyone can make it for long living like that. Even more so, I can’t fathom how society tolerates such injustice.
I feel too young to be saying, “Remember when?” But that’s exactly what I found myself asking after the article reminded me of the study Wilder Research conducts every three years to find out who is experiencing homelessness in Minnesota.
Back when I started as a college activist fighting to end homelessness (in 1989), there were a roughly 3,000 people experiencing homelessness in Minnesota on any-given night. Today, the number tops 9,400! This tells me two things:
- It wasn’t always this bad … so doesn’t always have to stay this bad.
- Society has found it tolerable to let more and more vulnerable people sleep on the streets, in shelters, or in places not meant for human habitation.
Honestly, when are we going to wake up and say we won’t let another victim of abuse sleep in a car? When will we care enough to say that no one with severe and persistent mental illness should live under a bridge? When will our politicians have the backbone to say that no child, no youth … heck no one … should be so outcast as to have to call themselves homeless.
Or, as my friend Monica Nilsson often asks, “when will the public have the political will to demand that we end homelessness?”
Friends, we know how to end homelessness. In fact, it costs less to do so than to pay for expensive interventions like emergency rooms, detox centers, jails and prisons, and mats on church floors. To find out what you can do to end homelessness, check in with the Minnesota Coalition for the Homeless.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Michael, your words are so true. This is something that can be and needs to be dealt with. Keep teaching us and fighting for the things we all need to believe in.
Thank you for your impassioned and articulate speech, and all your hard work.