Marshall Memorial Fellowship: Homelessness in Miami Makes Inequality Visible

Coming to Miami during our Marshall Memorial Fellowship, we were confronted with homelessness at every corner of the city. People were sleeping covered under cardboards in the small side streets of South Beach, spending the day on the sidewalk in the heat near Town Park with their piled up belongings next to them, or hiding in the dark at the beach at night.

That poverty becomes so visible is an observation I have made in different major U.S.cities, such as New York or Los Angeles. I saw fancy houses at Venice Beach and hundreds of homeless living on the lawn in front of it.

According to the OECD 17.9% of American citizens were considered to be poor in 2012. In comparison to other OECD-countries, the U.S. has a relatively high poverty rate. The U.S. Census Bureau counted 46.7 million people living in poverty in 2014.  Inequality of disposable income in the United States is the fourth highest in the OECD. And the gap between the rich and the poor widens. Income inequality in the United States has been rising significantly over the last three decades. Therefore, social mobility becomes much more difficult. The results can be seen in cities like Miami.

There are many reasons why people become homeless. Poverty is one of the key factors. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development estimates that more than 500,000 people are homeless in the whole country (counted on a night in January 2015). Forty-three percent of homeless individuals were staying in unsheltered locations. In Miami, officials speak about over 4,000 homeless, around 1,000 unsheltered. Compared to the impression of the streets, the figure seems much too low. In Miami, we also learned that many homeless were not counted, because they were hiding in abandoned houses, for example. The tragedy of this extreme poverty seems particularly shocking when juxtaposed against the glossy lifestyle Miami is most known for. 

There are many good initiatives in Miami that care for homeless people. We visited the Camillus House, which offers programs that help homeless people transition to a new life in a up to two year process including, for example, drug rehabilitation qualification for permanent housing. We met a woman who made it back to life after more than 15 years of drug abuse and a man who now goes back to school after a decade on the street.

But initiatives like Camillus house are in danger. Miami will lose $5 million for the homeless programs for the coming year, as it scored low in a federal competition for money from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Miami Herald reports. 700 people who are receiving services to get off the streets may be sent back next year. Camillus House would lose 75 % of funding for its Day Center. For Miami, this is awful.

In San Francisco, an interesting initiative is happening right now. With more than 6,500 homeless, the city is far behind in addressing the problem. Media companies in the area now plan to overcome their rivalries for a coordinated coverage on the homeless crisis in the city, as the New York Times reports. Thirty news organizations are participating to put the spotlight on the homeless issue to force politicians to come up with solutions. This is a good example of how journalism can make deficits and problems public. For sure, there is much more to do to solve the poverty questions. But a media campaign is a first step—the first of many that must be taken to address this profound social problem.