26 SUMMER 2020
HOMELESSNESS IN THEGREATER LANSING AREABy Sydney WilsonFour hundred and seventy six peoplewere homeless in Ingham County in2019. When the scope widens to all ofMichigan, the number went up to 8,575 —just counting one random night in January.Zoom out even more to the United States,and the number rockets to over half amillion — again, just on any given night.For those who don’t face this issue everyday, reminders of it stir up feelings ofshame, helplessness and frustration: howcould a single person hope to combatsuch a deeply rooted and pervasiveproblem? Even though people suffering fromhomelessness are in front of us every day,the problem feels untouchable to most…but not to all.Overwhelmed would-be allies in the fightagainst housing instability don’t need tolook far to find inspiration and a placeto start. People are chipping away at theproblem wherever they can, helping thosewho have the most need. From spoken wordstories to TARDIS-shaped food pantries tostreet-level health care, there are plenty ofpeople in the Greater Lansing area who arefighting against this Goliath of a crisis.In order to understand exactly whatthese people are fighting against, a fewmisconceptions and misunderstandingsabout homelessness need to be cleared up.The National Coalition for the Homeless(NCH) says that there are three types ofhomelessness: chronic, transitional andepisodic. People who are chronicallyhomeless depend on shelters as a longtermsolution to housing, as opposed to anemergency arrangement. According to theNCH, these people are “likely to be older,and consist of the ‘hardcore unemployed,’often suffering from disabilities andsubstance abuse problems.” However,despite chronic homelessness being whatcomes to mind when most people hear theword “homeless,” this type of homelessnessis far less common than the transitional type.Transitional homelessness is what happenswhen a person enters the shelter systemfor a short time before transitioning tomore stable housing. Usually, these peopleare young and in a state of precarioushousing stability, becoming homeless whena terrible event causes them to becomehomeless until they can recover. This typeof homelessness generally has a highturnover rate, which accounts for its highpercentage of the homeless population.Finally, there are the episodically homeless,meaning those who are in and out of theshelter system frequently. It is commonfor episodically homeless people to bechronically unemployed, have substanceabuse issues and suffer from poor mentaland/or physical health. Shockingly, youngpeople are more likely to suffer from episodichomelessness than any other age group.Many assume that a person becomeshomeless because of unemployment,substance abuse or mental illness, but inreality there are many other factors thatcontribute to homelessness. The NCH liststhe following as possible factors: a lackof affordable housing, the limited scaleof housing assistance programs, lack ofaffordable health care, domestic violence,mental illness and addiction. In manycases, it comes down to poverty; since rentis often one of the highest bills people haveto pay, it is the first to be sacrificed for othernecessities such as health care, childcare,food, weather-appropriate clothing andeducation. Thus, says the NCH, “If youare poor, you are essentially an illness,an accident or a paycheck away fromliving on the streets.”Knowing this, necessities such as food,medicine, sanitary items and warm clothingcan make the difference for a transitionallyor episodically homeless person by easingtheir financial strain enough that they canTHECURRENTMSU.COM 27