When we talk about homelessness, we may be tempted to think that the issue is one of altruism and charity. The reality is that homelessness in the United States costs us an exorbitant amount of money. The National Alliance to End Homelessness informs us that the U.S. spent over $51 billion to fight homelessness in 2021 alone. Homelessness also prevents people from working. Many employers require a home address, or at the least a social security card and other identifying documents. Where are you supposed to store identifying documents when you're homeless? If you lose them or have them stolen, where do you get a new one sent? Because of these barriers, only 25% of the U.S. homeless population is employed. Endhomelessness.org reveals that there are over 500,000 homeless families and individuals in the United States as of January 2020. Using EndHomelessness.org's statistic, that's 125,000 individuals who don't work who need to access social services for their basic needs. This is not including those who are underemployed and unable to make enough to meet their basic needs. If you calculate the cost of providing a $20,000 Urban Camp Home to every individual accounted for by Endhomelessness.org, it would cost $30 billion. Looking at the numbers, it just shows that we have a lot to gain economically from housing everyone, even if there is an initial cost.
-Alex Kemp
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