HOMELESS

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While researching and writing my book Knapsack Secrets where Audrey Fleta Hroc, a woman voted Woman of the Year by the business women of the community, is homeless in an instant. In a matter of a few days she is fired from her job, her husband of nearly 20 years asks for a divorce and her house burns down around her with all her possessions in it nearly taking her with it. No paycheck, bank accounts frozen and emptied by her estranged husband she is scrounging to survive on the streets of a town where she once felt powerful . Was that story line too far fetched?

According to the National Coalition For the Homeless (NCH) about 60% of the homeless people in the United States work and are still homeless. The NCH also says that housing costs should not exceed 30% of a person’s gross income. If a livable wage for a family of four is considered to be $32,185 then rent should not cost them more than $804.60 per month.

Minimum wage real value in 2004 was 26% less than in 1979. Young people today who are just starting out on their won are working for minimum wage. Without a room mate or two they cannot afford housing and all the other things a person needs to survive.

When the NCH studied the homeless population, they considered many issues. The four main issues they focus on after their study is to try to create equity are:
Housing Justice;
Economic Justice,
Health Care Justice;
and Civil Rights.

What makes people homeless; Health care, Mental Illness, Domestic Violence, Addiction Disorders? They found that while each may contribute to the homeless person’s misery, they are not the soul cause. However, families trying to survive on minimum wage, generally have no healthcare benefits. An illness, especially that of a catastrophic nature, slides them further into the throes of poverty. Part of this dilemma is the result of the decline in public assistance. Domestic Violence sends many a woman and her children scrambling to find a safe haven away from their abuser, which may be the street.

The welfare system reforms now instead of Aid For Dependent Children is called The Temporary Assistance to Needy Families or TANF and those benefits are below poverty level. Add to that the fact that Federal support for low income housing has fallen 49% from 1980 to 2003. The average wait for housing assistance is thirty-five months according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition in 2005. The disappearance of the majority of single room occupancy or SRO units has created another dilemma. These rooms were usually called efficiency apartments and were a low cost solution to a roof over your head for many. There are now fewer, lower priced places to live for people on meager minimum wages and reduced federal assistance.

Other contributing factors to the homeless dilemma are stagnant or falling income of the average American worker and less job security in that job, along with fewer benefits.

A chilling fact that an illness, a housing cost increase, a cost of living hike, or the loss of one pay check could conceivably put you among the homeless is a reality. Or like Audrey a sudden turn of fate could wipe out your life as you know it and the street may be the only answer. Could you survive?

It seems while the upper crust continue to receive major tax breaks, the gap between rich and poor widens at an alarming rate. What can you do? Get involved. Write to your Congressman/woman, your representatives, dig in and make a difference.

About the Author
Billie A Williams is an award-winning author and freelance writer. In addition to an array of other projects she is the owner of the Word_Mage group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/word_mage and their monthly ezine for writers. She is also author of a series of How to Write – for mystery and fiction writers of other genres. Her most recent mystery suspense novel “Bed and Breakfast Murders,” released January 2006 from Wings ePress, Inc. Her most recent novel (Knapsack Secrets ISBN 978-1-58961-468-2) released from Page Free Publishing. Visit Billie’s website at www.billiewilliams.com/books to read first chapters of all her books.

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There is more to being homeless than just being homeless - there is also hope from people like Janet Elaine Smith's Characters -- Patrick and Grace in her mystery stories. Grace is a wonderful senior woman who cooks for a Homeless Shelter in New York - Patrick O'Mally just happens to be one of New York's Finest and has taken particular delight in Grace - who always seems to be just what he needs - whether he is down and out or on a case-- she's his light at the end of the tunnel.
JANET ELAINE SMITH their creator - has a website dedicated to the duo Patrick & Grace (part of thePark Bench Mystery series) - you can find out more about them at http://crumbycapers.tripod.com
go check them out.