Resolved: The United States ought to guarantee the right to housing
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- Homelessness is a major problem in the United States;
- Solving homelessness is possible
Generic Housing CardsMedicine Hat has substantially decreased its homeless population by focusing on systemic issues rather than blaming the people themselves.DANIEL KORN, 2015. http://www.theplaidzebra.com/a-city-in-canada-tried-giving-free-housing-to-the-homeless-and-its-working/ Since April 2009, the government of Medicine Hat—a city in Alberta—has instituted a Housing First solution to homelessness, which provides subsidized, permanent housing for the homeless. Out of the 1,000 homeless individuals that inhabit the city, 885 have now been placed in a home; if all goes well, the city will have completely eliminated homelessness by the end of 2015. The traditional refutation of a system like this comes from a deeply misplaced perception that homeless people find themselves in such circumstances due to laziness or a lack of self-control, and that giving them “handouts” supports said behaviour. This ignores systemic issues that keep people from being able to support themselves, like institutionalized racial prejudice, inaccessible mental health care, and rampant income inequality. Homelessness is a major problem in the United States;NLCHP 11. National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. "“Simply Unacceptable”: Homelessness and the Human Right to Housing In the United States 2011." National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty. National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty, June 2011. Web. 18 July 2016. In 2011, the United States is facing a housing crisis of proportions not seen since the Great Depression, when President Franklin D. Roosevelt lamented in his Second Inaugural Address that he saw “one third of our nation ill-housed, ill-clad, and illnourished.”1 Prior to the foreclosure crisis and economic recession, homelessness was already a national crisis, with 2.5 to 3.5 million men, women and children experiencing homelessness each year, including a total of 1.35 million children and over a million people working full or part time—but unable to pay for housing.2 Since then, homelessness has increased dramatically: • In 2010 alone, family homelessness rose at a shocking average of nine percent in U.S. cities.3 • In the year from 2008 to 2009, the number of people living doubled up with family or friends out of economic necessity increased by 12%, to over 6 million people.4 • In the 2008 to 2009 school year, nearly 1 million school children were homeless—up 41% from the previous two years.5 The Human Right to Housing In 1948, the U.S. led the world in shaping the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which provides, among other things, that “everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living…including the right to housing.”6 However, the following year, the 1949 federal Housing Act stated a goal of “a decent home and suitable living arrangement for every American family,” but that goal was never enshrined as a right for every American.7 Solving homelessness is possibleDownload 95.74 Kb. Share with your friends:
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