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Rural Homelessness: The National Picture
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18785 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
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12 / 1991 |
2,354 Words |
| Author
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Kris Zawisza
Kris Zawisza is a research associate with the Housing
Assistance Council (HAC), a national non-profit agency that
works to increase the availability of decent and affordable
housing in rural communities. |
It challenges long-held notions of the peaceful and bountiful countryside, where people care about and for each other. But, yes, in small towns and villages throughout this country, homelessness exists. Like poverty and many other social problems, homelessness is less visible in rural communities, though no less severe and tragic to those who experience it. Its victims, as in urban areas, are often the most economically and socially vulnerable members of society.
Homelessness is not widely recognized as a problem of rural communities. Homeless is a word we associate with people living on the street or in shelters, and rural people are not often found in these situations. When they are in need of housing, they are more likely to be temporarily sheltered by family or friends or in motels, live in housing unfit for habitation, or find shelter in places such as abandoned building, sheds, vehicles, and shipping containers.
A shelter provider in downstate Illinois, quoted in Rural Homelessness (A Review of Literature, Housing Assistance, 1991), captures the many ways in which rural homeless people find shelter:
"We are often asked, 'Where are the homeless people? We never see them.' They are out there. Some of these people stay with friends or family, financially draining both. They have to move frequently from one house to another because these people cannot afford to support them or they could lose their housing. ... We housed a young man who had been living in an abandoned car during the month of December. ... Another young man said he lived in a large wooden crate on the streets in Marion. When it was too cold to sleep in the crate, he would spend the night at a truck stop. Then he would sleep during day in the park or in front of the Public Aid office. ... One of our residents slept in an abandoned building in Herrin. Another one slept in ditches and under overpasses. We recently housed a woman who hasn't had an address for three years. These are just a few examples that illustrate the harsh life of the homeless."
Public officials are often reluctant to consider inadequate housing and doubling up as forms of homelessness: they prefer to use the term precariously housed. But clearly there are factors beyond the mere presence of a physical dwelling that determine whether or not someone is housed. People staying in shelters are temporarily housed--in fact, some shelters have no limits to how long a person can stay. Yet, people in shelters are considered "homeless" because they do not have an adequate place of their own.
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