Homelessness in the USA and Britain

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Miami, Florida USA – 20% In Poverty, Starving, Homeless – Shocking Scenes

7 March 2013

Miami is a city of luxurious apartments, with the price for one square meter up to one million dollars. But for such homeless guys as Sean it sounds like a fairytale. More and more people find themselves in such tight conditions.

“In Miami there are South Beach and Brickell with posh palaces, but there are poor regions too. It is even difficult to imagine that it is possible in the USA. Children are walking barefoot there, no windows in the houses, some people live in cars. Lots of drugs, prostitution. We have the highest poverty rate here. About 20 percent of the city lives beyond the poverty threshold”, said Mario Artecona, representative of Habitat for Humanity organization.

Posh houses and high prices have created a bubble on the real estate market. An average person cannot afford a house here, so people just flee.

“We have very big gap here in Miami between the rate of salary and the expenses. The dwellings here are ones of the most expensive. Maybe it is because of the weather and everyone wants to live here. But it is really very expensive to buy a house in Miami. And salaries are really low at that. It is a heady brew”, added Mario Artecona.

To help people who work hard and honestly and yet cannot afford a decent house, there is an organization called Habitat For Humanity. It is compiled of volunteers of all ages and social statuses, who build affordable houses for people with low income.

One of the rules to receive support of the organization is to help in building your future house. The organization provides people with a monthly salary of $600-800, which is meant to be not more than 30 percent of the family income.

For some people this organization has become a real lifesaver. For example, for the family of Ruth Quarn.

“The place where we used to live was not very good, and we were surrounded by not very nice people. It was a hard place to live. It is really hard to find a flat with four rooms, more to it when we said that we had five children, it kind of repelled people and they always said ‘no’ to us”, said Ruth.

She and her family came to the US thinking that if they work hard they will be able to buy a decent house. But they had to face cruel reality.

“Everyone believes in the American dream, which means to have one’s own house, work. But what happens in reality you work diligently, but you can hardly make your both ends meet, saying nothing about buying a house. It is almost impossible to believe that it happens in the USA, and I can’t even imagine what happens abroad”, said Ruth.

More than a half million people were homeless in the United States this year, nearly a quarter of them children, according to a new report. The homelessness crisis is a stark indicator of the social reality in 2015 America and corresponds to a scarcity of affordable housing and dwindling wages for low-income workers and their families: here.

HOW TO TREAT THE HOMELESS DURING THE SUPER BOWL “In August, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said homeless people would ‘have to leave the street’ during Super Bowl 50 and promised to provide alternative shelter. But as those people are moved out of busy tourist areas, advocates for the homeless say the city could have taken a different approach.” [HuffPost]

Local officials in Britain have responded to the growth of social destitution resulting from continued mass unemployment and cuts to social spending with sweeping efforts to crack down on the homeless population: here.

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