According to USA Today, there are about 600 to 700 thousand homeless people living in the United States, the same number of people who live in all of D.C. Whether you’ve been in a homeless situation, known a homeless person, or just seen someone who’s homeless, you know how much this could impact a person. In addition, homelessness is increasing, and we must act now before it gets to a point where any solution may not have a big enough impact. Therefore, the U.S. Congress should initiate the Continuum of Care (CoC), which would launch the Rapid Re-Housing program to help homeless people find homes.
Homelessness is growing. Fast. Every year, more and more people don’t know where they are going to sleep at night, don’t know how they’re going to pay for healthcare, and don’t even know when their next meal will be. According to the article “Mortality Among the Homeless” by the National Library of Medicine, the average lifespan of a homeless person is about 17.5 years shorter than that of the general population. Read it multiple times if you need to, but it’s true: 17.5 years is a huge difference, and many of the people who died because of homelessness had no choice because they were born into this situation. Think about people like Ebony Shelley, the mother who was once found on a brick window ledge trying to find milk to feed her two-year-old. Or Cori, who is disabled and has to stay in Los Angeles’ 90-day emergency shelter with her daughter. Those are extremely difficult situations.
The U.S. Congress should initiate CoC to start what is known as rapid re-housing, which would pay for moving funds, the first month’s rent, and utility costs for people who become homeless. An article called “Rapid Re-housing” by The National Alliance to End Homelessness states, “Research demonstrates that those who receive rapid re-housing assistance are homeless for shorter periods than those assisted with shelter or transitional housing.” This shows us that tests have been done to show that rapid re-housing works, so this must happen to save all those people who don’t have a home. If unhoused people did have a home, they wouldn’t suffer from hardships such as temperature or injury. Congress needs to act fast.
Homeless people are dying earlier than average, and it has to end. So please, write a letter to Congress or reach out to anyone you can think of. Congress needs to recognize this is a problem because I know I have, and you should, too.
