The Homeless​—How Serious a Problem?

AROUND the world, millions of people live in what is commonly called substandard quarters. According to a UN publication entitled Building for the Homeless, in developing nations “up to 50 per cent​—in some cities nearly 80 per cent—​of the urban population lives in slums and squatter settlements,” without adequate water, lighting, sanitation, and waste disposal. What is life like in such places? Awake! correspondents make the following on-the-scene reports.

Bombay, India​—The sweltering summer heat in central Bombay is intense. Under a sprawling banyan tree, a man, a woman, and a baby lie sleeping on the sidewalk. Some meager bedding, a few cooking utensils, and the ashes of a small fire indicate they have staked their claim to the spot as a temporary home. There is no place else for them. Shoppers and businesspeople pass by, seemingly oblivious of the family. After all, there are tens of thousands like them in the city. In a country where the estimated housing shortage is 24.7 million dwelling units, people without homes are a common sight.

Nearby, in vacant lots and along highways and railroad tracks, crude tents have sprouted. Used gunnysacks and old rags are layered and shaped into shelters for countless numbers of people dubbed squatters. If such shelters are not cleared away by the authorities, cramped, windowless huts made of scavenged materials will appear. Those living there engage in a daily search for water. Railroad tracks and rubbish dumps become open toilets. Almost enviable by comparison are the “permanent” structures in established slums, where at least a few water taps and latrines can be found.

Johannesburg, South Africa​—For the white South African, housing is not a big problem, provided one can afford the ever-rising cost. However, according to the government’s official yearbook South Africa 1986, “South Africa is at present experiencing an extensive backlog in the supply of Black housing, especially in the urban areas.” With thousands of people on waiting lists for houses, three families must sometimes stay in a four-room house or one family of three or four in one room. When a son gets married, he gets on the waiting list, hoping that in two or three years something may become available. Meanwhile, the newlyweds either share the room with the parents or build a shack with corrugated iron in the backyard​—if there is one.

In some areas, owners build such shanties and ask for exorbitant rents. City councils allow it because they cannot cope with the demand for houses. This creates slums and breeds crime and disease. The radio reported that 136 babies out of every 1,000 die because of being born under such unhygienic conditions​—no running water, perhaps one toilet for four or five families. Older children too are affected. They learn to steal and take drugs at an early age. Drinking is common among the youth.

Shanghai, China​—For this most populous city of the most populous nation in the world, trying to find adequate housing for its more than 12 million inhabitants is a formidable challenge. Although the government is doing what it can to construct new housing units, the majority of the people still live in small homes, built in the ’30’s and ’40’s, that look like toy houses. They are crammed into large city blocks, accessible only by what the Shanghainese call alleys. Many of these houses are without running water, inside kitchen, or toilet, and they are unheated, even though winter temperatures may fall below the freezing point. Larger buildings in former French and British zones are usually divided up with one family to a room, all sharing a common kitchen and bath. Often, three generations live together in such a room.

Better housing for the people is high among the city officials’ priorities. At present, it is estimated that each person has only anywhere from 43 to 58 square feet [4 to 5.4 sq m] of living space. This is below the national goal of 64 square feet [5.9 sq m] per person. Reports show that in Shanghai 6,000 new apartments were built in 1985, and as much as $135 million (U.S.) was spent in 1986 on construction. Still, more than a hundred thousand people are on the official waiting list for new homes, and there is no way of telling how many others are looking for a place to call their own.

São Paulo, Brazil​—Shantytowns have sprung up everywhere in this city. Out of desperation, the homeless invade private properties and vacant lots and put up precarious tin huts and lean-tos, sometimes right next to stately homes and modern apartment buildings. Many traditional family homes have been converted into makeshift, one-room tenements, often with just one bathroom for more than 50 people.

Things took an ugly turn last April when the military police were mobilized to evict illegal squatters in a suburb of São Paulo. According to the newspaper O Estado de S. Paulo, elderly people were beaten, women were dragged out by their hair, and children were knocked down. Many suffered respiratory problems from the tear-gas bombs thrown into their shacks.

Anyone who has not experienced the misery, deprivation, and desperation of life in the slums, squatter areas, and shantytowns (or whatever one chooses to call them) would find it difficult to imagine such conditions. Yet, for hundreds of millions of people, they are the realities of everyday existence.

The Homeless​—A World Problem

THE problem of housing shortage and homelessness, however, knows no national boundaries; it is by no means limited to the poor, developing nations. The great capitals and metropolises of the developed world, almost without exception, also have their skid rows and slums. Along with the sparkling skyscrapers and modern high rises, there are the ghettos and decaying inner cities. What is life like in such places?

Commenting on a study conducted in Chicago, the magazine Science reports that the homeless there are “characterized by extreme poverty and isolation and high rates of dysfunction. Four out of five had been institutionalized in jails, mental hospitals, or for drug detoxification.”

Most U.S. cities have some public facilities for the homeless. New York City, for example, places single homeless people in public shelters and families in welfare hotels. It was expected that when winter came, 12,200 singles and 20,500 family members would be seeking help, and the authorities were hoping that somehow enough space would be available to house them.

What life is like in such places is quite another matter. The overnight public shelters in New York are usually converted gymnasiums or armories. Hundreds of people sleep in rows of beds in one large open space. Some street people refuse to go to the shelters. “The shelters are unsafe, and often they have bedbugs or lice,” said one unfortunate. “You sleep there with your eyes open.” Life is especially hard for children. “In the barracks-like shelters and cramped hotels that the city eventually sends them to, the children are exposed to a brutal array of problems​—disease, dysfunction, drugs, delinquency and despair,” reports the New York Daily News. “These children are in danger of becoming a lost generation.”

Because of the transient nature of homeless people, accurate figures are often difficult to come by. The National Coalition for the Homeless maintains that the number of homeless people in the United States is between two and three million. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, on the other hand, reports that “as best as can be determined from all available data, the most reliable range is 250,000 to 350,000 homeless persons.” Whatever the actual number of the homeless, however, everyone agrees it is growing.

“A Scourge of Our Time”

Countries in the European Community are also faced with serious housing problems. The Times of London reports that in the United Kingdom “the number of people living in bed-and-breakfast accommodation increased from 49,000 to 160,000 between 1979-84, there are 1 1/4 million people on council waiting lists and one million homes officially classified as unfit for human habitation.”

Across the English Channel, “in Paris, private groups say at least 10,000 people are living on the streets,” according to an article in The New York Times entitled “The Homeless of Europe: A Scourge of Our Time.” The Italian government estimates that 20 percent of newlyweds “have no alternative but to live with relatives, even after the birth of their first child.” Among the estimated 20,000 homeless Danes, “the number who are less than 30 years old has increased dramatically since 1980.”

Ironically, all of this is occurring, according to Peter Sutherland, Commissioner of Social Affairs for the European Communities Commission, just as these nations “had begun to believe that [they] were in sight of abolishing for good the scourges of poverty and homelessness.”

An Alarming Trend

In recent years, however, authorities dealing with the homeless have noted a new trend. The New York Times quoted a member of the Coalition for the Homeless in Chicago as saying: “We’re seeing the trend of needs change drastically from just ‘the poor’ to ‘middle class suddenly poor.’ They lose their jobs, their credit cards and their mortgage. It’s definitely not your stereotypical wino in the alley anymore.”

Similarly, the director of a social service agency in Connecticut observed: “Unfortunately, there is a misconception about who homeless people are. It’s not the bag person who drifts from one city to the next. It’s actually families who can’t afford to rent anymore because of high rents, lack of jobs, divorces.” According to a report released by the U.S. Conference of Mayors last May, a survey of 29 major cities revealed that families with children made up over one third of the homeless, and that was a 31-percent increase over the previous year.

Perplexing Questions

Although the severity of the housing shortage and homeless problem varies from country to country and from place to place, it is safe to say that there are few people today who are totally unaware of it or completely unaffected by it. And what is most perplexing is that in spite of the efforts and funds expended by the governments, there is no sign that the problem is abating. Why is this so? Where do all the homeless people come from? And, above all, what hope is there for solving the housing problem?