December 15, 2009

Elizabeth Schulte reports on how a growing number of families are finding themselves hungry and homeless in cities across the country, according to a new report.

MAJOR CITIES across the country--including places largely known for their wealth and abundance--are becoming centers of hunger and homelessness.

Requests for emergency food assistance increased a staggering 26 percent last year in cities across the country, according to the recently released findings of the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Hunger and Homelessness Survey. This is the largest average increase in demand in the last 18 years.

The survey, based on reports from 27 major cities across the U.S., found that three-quarters of them reported an increase in family homelessness. The rising number of families out on the street was a striking number, even as several cities reported that rates of individual homelessness had stayed the same or even declined.

Half of the cities included in the survey reported that the demand for food assistance increased by 30 percent or more. In Hennepin County, Minn., which includes Minneapolis, there was a 49 percent increase in requests for food assistance, centered in the metropolitan area around the state's biggest city. The food stamp programs is stretched to its limits--it wasn't "designed for this kind of event--a middle-class loss of jobs," Bill Brumfield, Hennepin County's area director of human services and public health told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Denise Jourdain, recently laid off from a non-profit organization, described going to a Catholic Charities food shelf in Minneapolis to apply for food stamps, after putting it off for three months. "The fear of not having enough food" drove her there, she told a reporter. "What if I don't have a job at the end of the month? I have to do this."

The U.S. Conference of Mayors' report found that 22 out of 23 cities reported an increase in people requesting food assistance for the first time. Nashville reported a 74 percent increase in first-time requests, Seattle had a 30 percent increase, and Los Angeles and Detroit recording 10-15 percent increases.

According to the mayor's report, people who a year ago were donating meals are now requesting them:

Six cities reported that middle-class families that used to donate to food pantries are now going there to seek assistance. The increased demand among middle-class families has created new challenges for food pantries. San Francisco opened five new pantries over the past year to serve those newly seeking assistance as a result of the recession. The city launched an aggressive media campaign to promote these pantries because many people were unaware that assistance was available. Dallas reports that middle-class families seeking assistance are unfamiliar with accessing social services, generally wait too long before trying, and are more vocal about conditions and circumstances surrounding some aspects of accessing social services.

Hungry people are also visiting food pantries more often. Providence, R.I., reported that "people used to coordinate their pantry visits with food stamp distributions. Now people are coming back sooner because their food stamps do not go as far due to the rising costs of food."

When asked for reasons behind the increase in hunger among their citizens, 92 percent of cities surveyed said unemployment was the primary cause, followed by high housing costs (60 percent) and low wages (48 percent). Thirty-two percent of cities cited high medical costs as a top cause of hunger--a big increase from 2008, when just 8 percent of cities reported medical bills as a leading contributor to hunger.

FAMILIES, RATHER than individuals, are becoming the new face of homelessness in the U.S. San Francisco, Sacramento, Nashville, Dallas, Boston, Kansas City and Charleston all reported double-digit increases in family homelessness.

In Norfolk, Va., where the number of homeless people increased 15 percent over the past year, the homeless population has changed, according to Linda Jones of the Union Mission Ministries there. There are more women and younger people who are becoming homeless, Jones explained to the Virginian-Pilot.

At the mission, men sleep on the floor of the lobby, and women sleep in offices or hotel rooms--nearly 300 people every night. That number is a 10 percent increase over a year ago.

Norfolk was already hit hard in 2007, when a Ford truck assembly plant closed. Now, times are even tougher. Private donations to Union Mission have declined 23 percent in 2009, Jones said. Last year, the organization provided 2,500 boxes of food to families during the holidays, and this year, only 1,000 boxes are available so far to meet an even greater need.

Norfolk's crisis is commonplace. City governments have been forced to be creative to keep up with the demand for places to spend the night. Seven cities in the mayors' survey described converting office buildings into temporary shelters to try to keep up with demand.

Several cities, including Detroit, Los Angeles and Nashville said that new tent cities for homeless have sprung up, and other cities like Sacramento and Des Moines reported that existing tent cities were growing larger.

The mayors' report added feedback about new or recently expanded federal programs that target hunger and homelessness as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009--the formal name for President Barack Obama's stimulus legislation earlier this year. Officials in many cities stated that funds received through programs like the Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program helped meet growing demand.

Nevertheless, the acute needs of the hungry and homeless far eclipse what the federal government has so far been willing to provide. Some 14 cities in the survey--about half--said that shelters had to turn away people because there weren't enough beds.

In Los Angeles, officials cited a survey of homeless people that found just 13 percent of respondents had tried to access a shelter within the last 30 days. Of that small minority who did seek a place to spend the night, some 68 percent were turned away because there was nowhere for them to stay.

The Obama's administration's stated commitment to providing stimulus money to address the increase in hunger and homeless is welcome. But it's a far cry from the enormous sums of federal money given to Wall Street and the Pentagon. Washington has to start devoting money to help lift workers out of the crisis, not simply leave them scrambling to survive on the streets.