Family Homelessness: Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN)
| Being without a safe, warm place to sleep, eat, and care for children, without the security of familiar people and things; this is homelessness. The loss of a home is a crisis for anyone, but especially for families. Parents must endure the heartache of not being able to provide a secure environment for their children. Without a home, children, who now comprise 25% of our nations homeless population, may spend many of their formative years without the most basic resources required for healthy development. Prior to recent times, many people believed that only alcoholics or severely mentally ill people could wind up homeless. But these stereotypes never did accurately portray the homeless population, and definitely do not reflect reality today. Families with young children now account for up to forty percent of America's homeless, and they are its fastest growing segment. The root cause of homelessness is simply the lack of sufficient family income to maintain decent, affordable housing. Hundreds of thousands of American families have found themselves caught in the growing gap between family income and the cost of a home. Low-income renters are often only one paycheck or calamity away from homelessness. The loss of a job, an increase in rent, sudden illness, the gentrification of a neighborhood, the absence of family support -- any one of these can drive a family into homelessness. Fortunately, many thousands of people believe that homelessness remains unacceptable, especially in the world's wealthiest, and most generous, society. And there is much that one person can do about it, especially in concert with others. The Interfaith Hospitality Network (IHN) is a tangible way many Americans have joined together to provide real help and compassion to homeless families, and to work together toward permanent solutions. |
