Understanding The Cause Of Hom

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choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which takes a high proportion of income that must be dropped.
Two major sources of income are from employment and public assistance. A decrease in either one of them would certainly put poor people at risk of homelessness. Additionally, minimum wage earnings no longer lift families above the poverty line. "More than 3 million poor Americans spend more than half of their total income on housing, yet the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates families should spend no more than 30%." (Gilbert 1993) Although many homeless adults are employed, they work in day-labor jobs that do not meet basic needs, while technological acceleration excludes others from a competitive job market.
Many factors have contributed to declining work opportunities for large segments of the workforce, including the loss of well-paying manufacturing jobs. The decline in relatively secure and ...

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minimum wage to $5.15 per hour in 1996. This increase made up only slightly more than half of the ground lost to inflation in the 1980s" (Shapiro, 1995b). Thus, full-time year-round minimum-wage earnings currently not equal to the estimated poverty line for a family of three. Unsurprisingly, the decline in the value of the minimum wage has been accompanied by an increase in the number of people earning poverty-level wages and the declining wages have put housing out of reach for many workers: in every state.
Slashed public assistance has also left many people homeless or at risk of homelessness. "Replacement of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) entitlement program-- a ...

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