Why homelessness?

I live downtown. Homeless people camp on my property. They steal, vandalize, leave their waste. I know of low-income housing that is a nightmare to live in because these and other problems abound.

The major factors of homelessness are mental illness, substance abuse inability to keep up in an increasingly complex society and lack of connective support. A homeless person may have one or more of these factors that haunt them and keep them homeless.

It is easy for people who don’t live in the midst of the problem to brainstorm solutions and wake up in their homes where homeless people don’t encroach on their life or property. Providing enough housing will not be a viable solution when the homeless that move into these places act out within the walls and make it a miserable place to live, even impossible.

The question really is, how are we going to solve the problems mentioned above that get people homeless?

My family hosted a Japanese exchange student recently. Homelessness is much less of a problem in their culture, though that may change. What is happening to us as a human race that we have a problem called homelessness?

Kerry L. Johnson

Spokane