To any of us working in homeless services, this info should come as no surprise.
I hear it all the time; folks who've suddenly found themselves homeless after years, perhaps decades, of stable work and a "model" life are bewildered and shocked that it "happened" to them.
Just about every single one of them was under the very mistaken impression that there were safety mechanisms in place by our community, our society, our government, that would kick in and help them as they spiraled towards the curb. They are angry as hell that there are no safety nets available to them, and yet, they continue to vote against their own best interests in every single election.
The problems facing the "new face" of homelessness don't revolve around mental illness, substance abuse and abject poverty - well, at least not initially (but you can bet your bottom dollar that as the pressure, hopelessness and despair that accompanies homelessness really sets in, substance use and mental illness will definitely make appearances in many of these people's lives).
No, the problems the new faces of homelessness experience are systemic in nature; unemployment or underemployment, lack of affordable housing, runaway prices on basic survival necessities (food, clothing, communication, transportation), and fewer and fewer training/education options as funding for these kinds of programs is slashed to zero.
It's a vicious cycle too, forcing the children of parents now shoved into dire poverty to abandon dreams of college in order to work to support themselves. Without any real education (and a high school diploma is about worthless when job hunting because so many individuals with advanced degrees have been shoved into the unskilled or semi-skilled job market by the shortage of jobs) and no support to increase minimum wages to "livable" wages, they become trapped in a cycle of subsistence poverty, where each week they earn just enough to pay the bills and start over again the following week. Caught in this ugly circle, there is little chance of escape without a total crash to the street and a long, slow crawl back.
Yes indeed, if there is going to be anything that forces us as a country to re-examine the path we're on and begin addressing the problems at home before we intervene with our dollars and resources elsewhere, it's going to be that the Middle Class has been badly harmed, perhaps irreparably, and those who've suffered from the stupidity and greed of corporate and plutocratic control of our government will band together into a very strong political unit that will force change by sheer voting numbers.
