Subpopulations of the Homeless

From the National Alliance to End Homelessness, this graphic describes the national composition of homeless subpopulations. Though the data is from 2008-2009, I believe this chart does help visually describe what the modern landscape of homelessness looks like.

For more data on national and local homelessness statistics, please visit their site.

Community Assists Homeless Grandmother Find Housing

From The State newspaper, a York County (SC) woman was living in a makeshift tent with her 7 year-old grandson while unhoused last week. While the woman did receive some welfare benefits, they were sufficient to transition her and her grandchild into permanent housing.

After local residents observed the pair in distress, a number of individuals coordinated resources to help her secure entry into an apartment. At present, the re-housed grandmother is now going though court proceedings and home inspections to secure the return of her grandson from protective care.

Increasing Homeless Population Includes More Female Vets

Picture via U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs

The Fayetteville Observer has released an important story about the increasingly complex picture of homelessness in the Midlands: female veterans of foreign wars. While the intersection of veteran and homelessness statuses have often been reviewed in scholarly literature and advocacy, reports suggest that women soldiers are facing the same obstacles that their male counterparts have struggled with.

More Homeless Female Veterans - Fayetteville Observer

How should we as a society prepare to better address the needs of this population? Are there meaningful differences in life course and social expectations for women veterans that institutions who serve persons without shelter ought to consider?

Housing Chronically Homeless Saves $ in Emergency Care

It probably should not surprise anyone that unhoused living is a persistent risk one's health. Other than the obvious conditions of weather and exposure, the enhanced likelihood of victimization of crime, exposure to risk behaviors, and the like all contribute to worse health outcomes.

A new HUD report details how providing supportive housing to the chronically homeless may actually save money in the long-run: by decreasing the amount of money the tax-base expends treating medical conditions that arise in part due to the conditions of long-term homelessness.

This is the brief from the National Alliance to End Homelessness. You can follow their links to the HUD report from there. Thanks to local Twitter feed @colahomeless for the heads up.

HUD Report: Housing Homeless Decreases ER Costs

Images of Homelessness

Santa Clara University is hosting a new exhibit featuring artists' images of homelessness. For those of you who are visual learners or just enjoy emotionally evocative artwork, check out their online feature "Hobos to Street People."

Thanks to the National Coalition for the Homeless' twitter feed for making me aware of the work.

Diminishing Rent Assistance in Charleston Area

When considering the number of people who are living in homelessness, it is important to also consider the people living at the margins just above homelessness. In many communities, individuals and families are able to avoid homelessness through the contribution of government regulated rent-assistance. While rent subsidies and housing voucher programs do draw from our available tax revenues, the amount of money invested in housing can be the difference between living in a stable home or entering a homeless condition.

Photo courtesy of Brad Nettles, Post & Courier

From this perspective, we can see the subsidies as a buffering investment that allows households to maintain their current home, social network, sense of self, and employment. Without these subsidies, we would see an even greater need on our already overtaxed emergency shelter-care systems.

Rent Assistance Cutbacks - Post & Courier (Charleston)

Also interesting to me are the comments at the bottom of the above article. The majority of the commentary are cynical critiques of the situation, either blaming the individuals in poverty for their situation or begrudging the fact that some of the housing is located on Daniel Island. I am not familiar with the Daniel Island area but it would be interesting to see what the household income distribution of the area looked like.

To Tent or Not to Tent?

Photo courtesy "Pinprick" @ Flickr

This post is not Midlands-focused but does raise questions about the intersection of property rights and homelessness. About 30 miles from my hometown, a proposal was floated to privately purchase land specifically for the use of homeless adults. The area would be set up as a campground for those in need to use while unhoused. As is often the case with NIMBY (not in my backyard) projects, there is a great deal of resistance with setting up a permanent space for those experiencing homelessness to utilize.

This raises interesting questions for me, such as:

What role should the government play in providing arbitration between the desires of property-owners and their neighbors?

Is this a viable model for non-metropolitan areas to meet the needs of their unhoused population without constructing a permanent (and often expensive) emergency shelter or transitional facility?

Plan For Homeless Tent City In Public Park Nixed - WESH Orlando

Student Homelessness

As we prepare for the start of the new semester and school year, one social problem that will often be revisited is the number of students experiencing homelessness while navigating our educational systems. By recent measures, Richland 1 - the main school district for Richland County - had over 1,000 students defined as "homeless."

What does it does it mean to be a homeless student. And, for the precision of this argument about the problem, how do we define a homeless student?

You can read more about the growing incidence of family homelessness in the Midlands area in this archived article from The State.

"More Families Touched by Homelessness" - The State

Take a Load Off

Some good news for the blog: La-Z-Boy has generously donated a number of couches and recliners to the thrift store of our local men's shelter.La-Z-Boy Donates Couches to Thrift Store

Image courtesy La-Z-Boy

Money quote from the linked article: “It is a win-win program for our buyers,” said Martha Brown, co-possessor and principal communications officer of La-Z-Boy of the Southeast. “People that acquire our furniture obtain value for their donation, and families in need get an assisting hand. It is our way of giving back to the public.”

It is great when corporations can focus their charity (or in this case "chair-ity"?) to benefit local operations. Great thanks to La-Z-Boy for their work.

Fundraising for Columbia's Only Family Shelter

Despite a tremendous amount of need in Columbia, there is only one shelter that accepts families together for emergency shelter care. Right now, fundraising efforts are going on to allow Columbia's Family Shelter to continue to offer care at current levels.



WISTV News Coverage of Family Shelter Effort

Living Unhoused

In the course of the Great Recession, many households in the Midlands area have been under great economic strain. For many, the struggle to maintain a stable residence for themselves and their families has become unsustainable - forcing men, women, and children alike into homelessness.

This blog will chronicle news and events that pertain to the struggle among those who are experiencing homelessness in the Columbia and greater Midlands area of South Carolina. In doing so, the blog will serve as a template to demonstrate how a blog can be set up to contribute to public awareness for the students of SOCY 340: Introduction to Social Problems at the University of South Carolina's Department of Sociology.