What the Homeless Can Do to Help Themselves

In Many Respects the homeless are their own worst enemy.

They allow a small, highly visible minority, for instance, to establish the public image of who and what they are. The image that most people have of the homeless is determined by those who sleep in our public parks,doorways of businesses, and foyers of public buildings. The panhandlers. The drunk and disorderly. The mentally ill. That image is a stereotype. It is misleading, highly prejudicial, and dangerous. Not all homeless fit this stereotype.

For instance, according to Barbara Eherenreich in her book, "Nickel and Dimed, Getting Along (or Not Getting Along) In America", more than 25% of all homeless people have full time jobs and do not make enough money to make ends meet from month to month. That 25% figure is echoed by the Coalition on Homelessness ("Facts on Homelessness", April 1999). The Coalition determined that "approximately one quarter of all homeless people are employed, but live a precarious existence, surviving from one paycheck to the next." Many working homeless cannot afford first month, last month and the deposits necessary to move into stable housing. In addition many of the working poor may have difficulty in passing reference or background checks because of past eviction notices or because of poor credit references. For these "working homeless" the choices include sleeping in cars or paying highly inflated rents for substandard motels that can be rented by the week.

Ehrenreich, a highly competent, talented writer, with more than a dozen published books to her credit, took jobs in many areas of the country. She worked as a waitress, a housekeeper for a motel, a salesperson at Walmart, etc. She found that she repeatedly had difficulty making enough to keep herself in both food and housing from month to month, and that new clothing purchases or small extravagences were almost impossible to budget.