A family of four that earns less than $24,300 is considered to live in poverty. Extreme poverty is referred to families that earn approximately $12,150 per year (Kraft & Furlong 2018). In 1965, President Johnson enacted entitlement programs to address the War on Poverty (Kraft & Furlong p 319). The War on Poverty including poor families, single parent families, youth, elderly and homelessness. Addressing the issue involved with homelessness includes mental illness, poverty, cuts to social programs, lack of affordable housing, and lack of transportation, drug and alcohol addiction. Often, homeless individuals are found to have some form of mental or behavioral illness. This may include an inability to be sociable among others, non-diagnosis of mental illness behavior and self-medicating through the use of alcohol or street drugs.
Political Aspects
Cuts to social programs have created an immediate problem for individuals just barely getting by. A reduction in housing allowance, SNAP, social programs in healthcare, an increase in healthcare premium or loss of coverage may place an individual or family on the path to homelessness. Moreover, those individuals or families that are led by individuals with mental health issues (Spetter n.d.).
Other areas of Policy Making may have an effect on families and individuals that are vulnerable to becoming homeless. An example of other policy decisions includes The American Healthcare Act. Its legislation was introduced by the House of Representatives in 2017. It will phase out the higher matching of Medicaid expansion and cap Medicaid’s growth rate (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget 2019). As a result, this will increase the Federal deficit by $200 billion. This will cause a reduction in entitlement programs such as SNAP and housing assistance making families at the poverty level vulnerable of becoming homeless. Moreover, the head of families that suffer with mental illness. In addition, the Proposed Federal Budget 2020 has proposed Medicaid block grants for the States. The States would manage and decide eligibility of Medicaid, SNAP and Public assistance. This proposal is a 12% reduction in Health and Human Services from prior year (Whitehouse.gov 2020). This will result in entitlement reductions and eliminate persons eligible for certain programs. Included in these programs are mental health services that are needed for low income families. Though, this reduction to the department of Health and Human Services would reduce the Federal deficit by $420 billion over the next ten years (Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget 2019).
Equity Issues
The lack of affordable housing has caused a major issue for homelessness. The immediate concern is the aging population is increasing among the homeless (Petersen, Parsell, Phillips & White 2015). Countries such as Australia are dealing with similar issues with the elderly. Over seventy percent of the elderly in Australia that are renters are at risk for becoming homeless. The lack of affordable housing, a decrease in working income after reaching retirement age and a reduction of federal benefits has created a segment of population to be at risk for homelessness. United States baby boomers are facing similar challenges. A baby boomer is described as an individual that was born between 1946 and 1964. As Baby Boomers begin retirement, it’s recommended they have accumulated at least 80% of their annual income for retirement (Butrica, Iams & Smith 2004). The major problem in the US is the fact that baby boomer make up 20% of the U.S. population. Any cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid reform could have a sweeping effect on baby boomers, elderly, children living in poverty resulting in potentially increasing homelessness.
WC501
watch the highlighted videos, read the resources, and answer the two questions for this week’s discussion.
- Will increasing minimum wage, nationwide, help the U.S. economy, or cause more damage? Explain your answer.
- In your opinion, does it appear that specific homeless population receive more attention versus others, or are things equal among that overall population? How can we ensure overall equality in services provided to the homeless?
Sample Solution