September
2004
Voteless
and Voiceless—The Homeless in America
By Kymberlie Adams Matthews
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On January 18, 2004, Raymond
Greenwald froze to death under a footbridge in River West Park, Chicago.
His body was discovered by a group of
14 year-olds playing in the snow. Raymond Greenwald was a homeless
man.
The bleak truth is, over the past four years the United States has
had a dramatic increase in homelessness, and tragically, because of
the Bush administration’s
swelling national deficit, the worst might be yet to come. To put into perspective,
five years from now the average family’s projected share of the national
debt will be more than $84,000, compared to the $500 per family when Bush took
office.
According to the Department of Labor, unemployment has jumped 37 percent since
November 2000 with housing prices at historic highs. In the annual Hunger and
Homelessness survey it was noted that requests for emergency food assistance
increased by an average of 17 percent over 2002, while emergency shelter assistance
increased by 13 percent. The survey also noted that cities are finding the crisis
overwhelming in the face of severe budget cuts, which limit their ability to
provide emergency assistance. A record 84 percent of cities had to turn away
people from shelters due to lack of space. This was up 38 percent over 2002 and
the largest turn-away in seven years. Moreover, 61 percent of people requesting
emergency food assistance in the cities surveyed held jobs.
Set figures are hard to come by, but roughly 800,000 people are homeless in America
on any given night, and between 2.5 million and 3.5 million people will experience
homelessness this year. Sadly, around half are families, usually with only one
parent, who can’t find affordable housing. They usually stay in the shelter
system until finding a place to live. If they are so lucky. The other half of
the homeless population are single adults. Some pass through the shelter system
relatively quickly, but around 190,000 or so never leave.
The future for America’s children is also grim. Large, sustained deficits
eventually suck up national savings, meaning less money for education and training
of young people. Add to this declining investments in other economic sectors
and it doesn’t take long to see what’s in store. As deficits continue,
huge chunks of taxpayer dollars will be diverted from education and health programs
to service the national debt. Interest rates will rise and living standards will
fall. And who gets caught in the middle? The most vulnerable of us: children.
Despite these alarming facts, the Bush administration wasted little time in backing
away from the federal government’s commitment to provide low-income rental
housing assistance through the Section 8 program to our nation’s families.
Section 8 is a voucher program that currently provides housing to approximately
two million low-income households of which 1.2 million are families with children.
It gets worse, the National Low Income Housing Coalition has put out an alert
regarding the Bush administration’s FY 2005 budget proposal which slashes
millions of dollars in all areas of need (www.nlihc.org/news/020404).
Knowing Your Place
What can be done? How can homeless people help get Bush out of office?
Well,
that’s easier than it may sound—they can vote him out! Under the
U.S. Constitution, every American citizen without regard to personal property
has the right to vote. The fact that people who are homeless have no permanent
residence should not be used to disenfranchise them. On that note, in comes Murphy’s
Law, in that every solution breeds a new set of problems. Many homeless people,
while qualified to vote, are unable to register due to the many policy and legal
obstacles placed before them.
The disheartening fact is, 30 states require a person have a mailing address
in order to register. And while nearly all states say that a person can register
to vote even if he/she lives in a shelter or on the streets (48 states), only
17 have written policies and 24 have verbal policies. Currently, only ten states
(Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Nebraska, Oregon,
and West Virginia) have laws which give homeless people the right to vote.
How did this get so difficult? According to the Constitution, we all have the
right to vote. Could it be because in a presidential election year, homeless
people could make a noteworthy impact in some states—Florida was decided
by just over 500 votes in 2000—come November? When a state has a verbal-only
policy on homeless voter registration, each county elections official makes its
own policy. This sits well with opponents of homeless voter rights. Concerns
about the process range from voter fraud to giving undue influence to transient
residents of a community. Voter administration officials in major cities, however,
show little concern since claims of fraud related to homeless people have never
been proven, and voters today are comprehensively canvassed before elections
to eliminate obsolete registrations from the polls.
A Hero
In 1992, Michael Stoops, director of community organizing at the National Coalition
for the Homeless in Washington DC started the “You Don’t Need a Home
to Vote” campaign, and has since registered tens of thousands of homeless
voters using shelters, post office boxes, and friends or families’ residences
as their permanent address; as well as lobbying for written policies/opinions
from either the State Elections office or the State Attorney General.
Now gearing up for the 2004 elections, they are promising to protect and promote
a homeless person’s right to vote more than ever, ensuring people who are
homeless maintain an active role and voice in shaping their future. From Washington
to Ohio to California homeless advocates are stepping up efforts to bring the
needs of low-income and homeless citizens out of the shadows and into the public
eye. Registration tables are being set up in shelters, food pantries, and on
the streets. With nearly a million people without a home on any given night,
organizers are hoping to register tens of thousands. It aims to reach out to
homeless in all 50 states during National Homeless Voter Registration Week in
late September. And this year the coalition is focusing to register voters in
six target cities including Nashville, Tenn.; Little Rock, Ark.; and Cleveland,
Ohio.
The campaign uses a five-pronged strategy of registration, education, get-out-the-vote,
state and federal legislation, and litigation. Their ultimate goal is to have
laws passed to give “teeth” to either verbal or written policies.
At the very least, it’s an opportunity to showcase what some say are growing
concerns surrounding the 3.5 million people who cycle into homelessness each
year and help them reintegrate back into society.
Activists are also at work in large urban areas: in New York, the Partnership
for the Homeless hopes to register 5,000 voters by November, and the Los Angeles
Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness plans to register 20,000.
While advocates hope a voice at the ballot box can help get quality health care
and education for those who need it, the main issue is ending homelessness permanently.
One key topic this year is funding for Section 8 housing assistance programs
in President Bush’s proposed budget for 2005. While new money going into
housing subsidies has increased since 2003, unused funds from previous years
cushioned the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s budgets in
2003 and 2004. As a result, even with an increase in funding, less money is expected
to be available after this year.
Certain politicians are taking note as well. Before Super Tuesday, John Edwards’s
New York State campaign director visited Peter’s Place, a Manhattan drop-in
center. Hours later, John Kerry’s sister also paid a visit. But beyond
political posturing, advocates say the simple act of registering and voting brings
a sense of dignity to those forced to live on the streets. Having a home is not
what makes you a responsible American citizen, in times like these, voting is.
Everyone deserves both the right, and the ability, to do so.
To find out what kind of policy/law your state currently has, contact the “You
Don’t Need a Home to Vote” campaign at www.nationalhomeless.org.
They can furnish you with model policies and legislation for adoption in your
state. To help register homeless voters in New York, contact the Partnership
for the Homeless at www.partnershipforthehomeless.org or 212-645-3444.
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