Homelessness does have a face and it’s one that most of us think we know. It’s one we’ve been looking at, or looking past, for many years now. It belongs to a man, with a grizzled face, tattered clothes, an obvious drinking or drug problem, perhaps some sort of mental or physical disability. That is the face of homelessness that we know.
But these so-called “chronically” homeless, according to some experts, represent only a small percentage of the people who have no place to call home. The rest are likely to be a mother with one or two small children, a family where Mom or Dad might even have a job. But the wages are so low, and the cost of housing so high that after one big doctor’s bill or a missed paycheck, they’re out in the street. Seeing the new faces of homelessness.
Guests:
Philip Mangano, executive director, United States Interagency Council on Homelessness
Sister Margaret Leonard, executive director, Project Hope, Dorchester, MA.