|
18. After reading the following selection, write an argumentative passage supporting one of these conclusions: (1) Homelessness is chiefly caused by mental health and substance abuse problems. (2) Homelessness is not chiefly caused by mental health and substance abuse problems. (3) The homeless deserve government assistance. (4) The homeless do not deserve government assistance Homeless Activists Miss the Point: The Undue Focus On Poverty Obscures Real Root Causes by Joseph Perkins Back in the days when the homeless problem was in vogue, before the politically correct set began adorning their breasts with red ribbons to prove their empathy for AIDS victims, I decided to investigate for myself whether the economic policies of Ronald Reagan were to blame for the growing legions of street people who seemed suddenly to have invaded America's cities. So I spent a night at New York's Grand Central Station, which was a favorite gathering place for many of the city's homeless. I chatted with scores of the dispossessed who passed through the doors that night. I quickly discovered that, contrary to the news reportage at that time, the homeless were not "people like you and me" who simply had fallen upon hard times. I saw, for instance, no yuppies in threadbare suits sifting through the trash bins for a discarded Wall Street Journal. I saw no middle class families huddled on benches with all their worldly possessions in tow. What I did see were dozens upon dozens of pitiable men and women who were suffering from some dysfunction or another. Some were afflicted with mental problems. Others were drug or alcohol abusers. Clearly their homelessness owed not to economic dislocation, as I had been led to believe, but simply to self-destruction. It is now eight years later, yet we're still hearing the same explanations of the nature and causes of homelessness. Homelessness advocacy organizations continue to promulgate the myth that homelessness is primarily an economic problem rather than a mental health and substance abuse problem. Among the more prominent purveyors of this misinformation is the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, which, as its name suggests, sees a link between poverty and the growing hordes of street people. It notes that 40 percent of poor people spend two-thirds of their income on housing. "This means that for growing millions of Americans, a missed paycheck, a health crisis, or a high utility bill brings the threat of homelessness," the lawyers assert. The law center advocates were less than happy with President Clinton's recent executive order calling for a homeless plan to be developed within nine months. They saw no reason why he shouldn't have given his imprimatur to a plan that they already have drawn up. So what's the lawyers' solution to the homeless problem? To have the federal government turn over former military bases and other vacant property to the homeless. Create a jobs program for them. Give them income assistance. Offer them day care and health care. And, oh yes, remind them of their right to vote. It's the typical liberal response to a social problem¾ spend more money, create new programs. Meanwhile, they miss the boat. In 1963, there were as many poor people in America as there are today. And they spent much of their income on housing. Yet, in 1963, the only homeless seen in cities and towns across the country were the occasional bums and hobos. Two things happened between 1963 and 1993 to give us the present homeless population: All but the most dangerous patients were disgorged from state mental hospitals, and illegal drug use exploded. This is borne out by a 1992 survey conducted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors (which, ironically, continues to view homelessness as primarily an economic problem). The mayors found that 28 percent of the homeless population in the cities were mentally ill (probably a lowball estimate) and 41 percent substance abusers. This suggests that at least seven of 10 street people have either a mental or chemical problem. Even if the economy were booming, jobs were plentiful, and affordable housing abundant, these unfortunates probably would still be out on the streets. This is the conclusion of a persuasive new book, A Nation in Denial: The Truth About Homelessness, by social activists Alice S. Baum and Donald W. Burnes. The authors note that "some research suggests that very poor families¼ may be fiscally poorer than the homeless." The difference, they write, is that "the merely very poor have not used up what we call 'network resources'¾ church, family, neighbors, friends. For the homeless, these networks have disappeared." By linking homelessness to poverty, advocates obscure the real root of the problem. The ranks of America's street people will not be thinned out by placing them in jobs programs of offering them cheap housing. If we really wanted to help the homeless, we would pay far more attention to their mental health and substance abuse problems. |