United Nations Says U.S. has "Shamefully Neglected" its Homeless
Published November 13, 2009 @ 05:40AM PT
The United States should be hanging its head in shame for violating the international human right to adequate housing, according to the initial findings of a special investigation by the United Nations. After a seven-city tour of the US, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing calls the failure of the U.S. to address the growing housing and homelessness crisis "shameful." But will a shaking finger and 'tsk tsk' from the UN finally force us to embrace housing as a human right?
There's no question that there is a shortage of decent, affordable housing in this country. And it has been well-documented that the homeless population has grown due to our economic troubles. The UN investigation was launched to determine if this perpetual housing shortage and growing numbers of homeless are bad enough to constitute a human rights violation.
Raquel Rolnik, the UN special rapporteur for the right to adequate housing, toured seven cities over two weeks time, including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, and several rural communities. Her initial reaction to the tour were delivered in a verbal report to the U.S. State Department. According to the Guardian, she concluded it was "shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing."
Indeed, Rolnik seemed to be most bothered by the whacked priorities of the US, the perpetual favoring of big banks and businesses over the basic needs of low-income individuals."In the US, it's feasible to provide adequate housing for all," she said. "You have a lot of money, a lot of dollars available. You have a lot of expertise. This is a perfect setting to really embrace housing as a human right."
Is it really the perfect setting if we lack the political will, the collective will to view housing as a human right rather than a commodity for building wealth, a commodity that must be earned by those who are most "deserving?"
The US state department has a month to respond to Rolnik's verbal report. She will issue a final written report to the UN human rights council early next year.
Image from the Guardian.
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Comments (17)
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Shannon has worked in homeless shelters and service organizations in San Francisco, the Triangle region of North Carolina, and currently in the greater Boston area. She is a graduate student studying housing and urban policy at Tufts University.
The US hang its head in shame? No way. We're more the type to give the homeless a one-way ticket somewhere so that we can then invade that place for human rights violations and genocide under the guise of concealing weapons of mass destruction. This is basic US Politics 101.
Posted by Fred Frankenberg on 11/13/2009 @ 10:43AM PT
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In US Politics 201 we will learn that bonus contracts are awarded if the place we send the homeless happens to control oil in some way or another.
Posted by Fred Frankenberg on 11/13/2009 @ 10:46AM PT
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This is another example of a curious American exceptionalism. It seems completely irrational that we would create and host an organization like the United Nations only to ignore its binding agreements. Geneva Conventions, The Kyoto Protocol, The Declaration of Human Rights (which includes a right to shelter and security)-- these are all things that Americans can disregard. Very strange. Loved your insight about housing as a commodity, Shannon. Nice post.
Posted by Noah Jennings on 11/13/2009 @ 11:44AM PT
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Well said...we all know now that it's all just words on paper as long as the right people still ge tto go to the bank everyday then it's all good in america. Being able bodies and smart is now of no help in America because we farmed every job available to 3rd world nations that we then exploit...hmm, tax incentives too? No wonder we gutted ourselves our of that surpluss
Posted by John Giordano on 11/13/2009 @ 02:53PM PT
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I wonder about the claim that the United States is the wealthiest nation in the world. I have been told (forget source) that this is no longer true--consider our deficit compared with the surpluses of countries like China, India, and Mexico on whom we depend by borrowing more and more from them. Without them our economy would completely tank.
Certainly the U.S. may lead the world in proportion of billionaires, or at least numbers of them. But not much of their wealth is invested here.
The creativity and dynamics of China's economic growth are intimidating but should set an example, though China's record on human rights is sickening.
We should work toward an economic recovery of the people, to retain our high standing and standards, such as they are. They are in jeopardy, such as they are.
The fight to recover the economy and therefore a surplus, ascends to higher dimensions, including the freedoms that remain among enlightened cultures. Scary but true.
Not that our culture is where it should be, but we must climb toward improvement rather than yield to atrophy and enslavement.
Posted by Marta Steele on 11/14/2009 @ 11:13AM PT
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Thank you, United Nations, for undertaking this investigation, and thank you, Shannon, for reporting it.
How very sad it is, too, to see so many empty houses now, simply deteriorating, because the banks decided it would be better to force people out and foreclose than to actually try to help them keep their houses by finding ways to give them affordable, fixed rate loans. They could have easily done this, but they didn't. As a result, entire communities fall apart as they take a huge financial hit, and there is no longer a viable, working community.
Posted by Barbara McNamara on 11/14/2009 @ 11:54AM PT
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I see a lot of points being made here but very little in terms of solutions. The problem of homelessness can't be solved unless those that are homeless play an active part in the solution.
I would support a plan that would give the homeless a good, clean place to live in exchange for their sobriety and their willingness to contribute to society. Human beings need to feel valued and it's damn near impossible to feel valued when you're strung out on drugs or alcohol and all you get is handouts - even from the government.
I say we make an investment in the homeless and making an investment means the investor gets a fair return for their investment. Getting them sober will first of all help them and have the added benefit of reducing crime. Giving them a purpose, be it cleaning up neighborhoods, highways or even building homes for the homeless, would help them feel human again. For those that did well in those programs, I would further invest in their education, to help them not merely maintain our society, but move it forward.
Putting forth a criticism without proposing a solution is the work of idle hands and a lazy mind. Helping these individuals is a good and valuable thing but asking for something in return is the essential part of the cure.
My father and brother lived in a shelter for two years and stayed drunk the entire time. They didn't wat to go to school or to get sober but they took full advantage of a warm place. My father died from alcoholism at 51 and my brother is still an alocholic and cares little about himself. They spent/spend their entire lives complaining about how miserable they were and are, place blame every where else and do nothing to make improvements.
Posted by lin seahorn on 11/15/2009 @ 09:04AM PT
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Lin, you are making the assumption that all homeless are either drunk or strung out on drugs; this is just not true. There are many homeless people who are in that situation because they have lost their job, have no income and have no place to turn, such as an extended family. My brother is in such a predicament. He is staying with a friend who is about to be foreclosed on. He will end up living in a tent, as he has done before. ALL HE WANTS IS A JOB, and he puts in applications all the time. He's a college graduate with many, many skills. He's just considered too old, and has too much of a gap in his employment history; he's been told this by potential employers. (and the 'gap' is not for lack of trying). He's also a veteran. (Many, many veterans are homeless, as well.)
The SOLUTION: is to find JOBS for every single homeless person who wants one, and to enable them to get AFFORDABLE HOUSING. The solution is very simple. The means however is "going to take a village."
Posted by Barbara McNamara on 11/15/2009 @ 09:54AM PT
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Barbara, I made no assumptions in my comment just offered a solution for those who experience homelessness that have drug and alcohol problems. I realize there are plenty of reasons for homelessness including mental illness as well and they need and deserve housing, therapy and medicines and with that, can hopefully return as a productive member of society. The point of my comment was to address those who continue to say we have a problem without putting forth any constructive solutions.
Posted by lin seahorn on 11/15/2009 @ 03:24PM PT
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So Lin, if someone drinks or uses drugs, then they don't deserve a warm place to stay? There have been studies showing that if you give homeless people a place to stay with no or at least few strings attached (e.g. mandatory addiction treatment), then with the basic necessities met, they are often able to improve their situation. Of course, some people aren't going to improve regardless. So they are better off without a place to stay and food to eat? It angers me that human beings should be reduced to "investments" that we should expect a return on. Sometimes I wonder if the real reason shelter and food are not considered rights in this country is for fear that then employers, not having the prospect of homelessness and starvation to use as leverage, would actually have to treat their employees more equitably. How about this: if society takes and privatizes virtually all the land, and creates a de facto situation where one basically has to work for somebody else and must pay for shelter and food, then perhaps society has some obligation to provide those necessities for people who cannot afford them, or have difficulty in a work environment that treats people as "human resources".
I think most people with drug and alcohol problems don't really want to be that way - it's just the way they deal with their suffering. They need to have value in their life, but they really need a morale boost. If they want treatment, great, but using shelter as blackmail to force treatment is wrong I believe (it's also a losing strategy - these programs work best when participants WANT to change). It's not just what you say, it's how you do it. You say they need value in their lives, but your prescription implies that they only have value if they admit themselves to addiction treatment and provide a material benefit. Show them that they have INTRINSIC value by providing them with the necessities, then give them the opportunity to get involved in social/behavioral programs and/or employment, and then there is a reasonable liklihood that they will want to deal with whatever substance issues they have.
Posted by Tom Carter on 01/11/2010 @ 12:46PM PT
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It is so completely amazing to read firsthand accounts about homelessness. As an older contributor, I add that many totally dysfunctional people were put out on the streets shamelessly when Reagan decided to subtract funding from asylums for mentally disabled citizens.
There was no option then for them to function normally--and imagine thirty years later. I'm sure those who survived occupy an unreachable dimension. Shame on our society for having allowed that to happen, though I don't believe that activism could help at that point in history. I was raising my daughter at the time and working full time, so out of the loop. Maybe others can be more enlightening.
Posted by Marta Steele on 11/15/2009 @ 05:32PM PT
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At the same time that Marta points out, the mentally ill were being dumped out onto the streets, with few, if any services or supports, there was all sorts of new funding that went into the prison industrial complex, as more and more people got locked away for more and more trivial causes. California came up with the "three strikes" rule, resulting in some getting locked away for the rest of their lives for crimes like being poor, mentally ill, homeless, and stealing things-- boy, I feel so much safer now, lol.
I look around, I read the news, and I think, I hope we find another planet than can sustain life...soon.
Posted by Cee Wolfe on 11/17/2009 @ 05:02AM PT
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Census projections have the U.S. population going to 430 million by 2050. Thats just 20 years after ending Homelessness if the 10 year plans take 20 years to execute.The BabyBoomers will push the over 65 group up to over 80 million and the numbers don't recede like the tide after the Boomers. Over 65 doubles and those 85 year olds triple in numbers. We should make getting old against the law. That will justify our insanity. Too much money in Disease management. Especially considering all the Law enforcement programs on cable.
Posted by Keith Bender on 11/18/2009 @ 01:11AM PT
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Not to worry. The human race will be extinct by 2100. The soup pot will have started filling up sooner, according to projections. (I've done a lot of projecting at my blog about the ramifications in detail of the insidious, coming deluge.)
I don't know about migrating to other planets, but "they" could manufacture lots of space stations and really crank up math and science curricula all over the place. Then we could waltz through the universe to the tune of the soundtrack from 2001: Space Odyssey.
But there is this bit of hope at the bottom of Pandora's box: science to fight back against our extinction, along with lots more attention to our languishing environment very quickly. But scientific inventiveness and imagination are the real keys to our survival.
Not too long ago I wrote in a blog about the fall of Western Civ: "Will all those dead white men have labored in vain?"
Posted by Marta Steele on 11/18/2009 @ 06:47PM PT
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Posted by Dave Smith on 11/22/2009 @ 12:36PM PT
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I will tell you, I am going to inject a term that will likely make some cringe, or be upset... sex offenders.
Thousands of ex-sex offenders are becoming shamed into homelessness
I am not talking about child rapists, I am talking about even kids who got caught having sex with their boy or girl friend who was under age.
When will Americans wake up and realize the current regime of politicians/crooks are care nothing for Citizens, all they care about is status and money.
We definitely need Chane, we need to kick them all out and get new people in there.
But that will never happen.
We are fighting for Homeless Rights
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Posted by Dave Smith on 11/22/2009 @ 12:41PM PT
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Great post Shannon. I also appreciated the comments by Marta and Cee on deinstitutionalization and supporting the prison industrial complex.
I'm fairly new to housing issues and related social justice concerns. However, I've done a little reading and recently made a series of posts on "Housing as a Human Right."
http://talktostambrose.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/housing-as-a-human-right/
I welcome any and all feedback from such knowledgeable readers...
Posted by Will Flagle on 11/30/2009 @ 09:27AM PT
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