U.S. Mayors Report: Working Families Increasingly at Risk for Hunger and Homelessness

Is food and shelter a basic human right?

Regardless of a person’s situation, don’t they still deserve food, water, shelter, and clothing as the absolute minimum necessary to survive? If people are deprived of these basics, the result could very well be death. By not caring for those who don’t have enough to eat or a safe place to sleep at night, we may all be guilty of human rights abuses.

According to the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights , Article 25, Section 1: “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.”

In America, we tend not to think about the human rights abuses that happen daily in our cities, maybe because we contrast it with more obvious issues seen elsewhere, like unlawful detention, torture, and slavery. But a new report points out that even in the midst of an affluent country, those abuses are still rampant.

The report, a new survey of U.S. cities from the U.S. Conference of Mayors, shows that the rates of homelessness and hunger increased in the past year for most of the 25 cities who participated. The increases were driven by housing foreclosures, high housing costs and rising unemployment rates.

“This report demonstrates that working families are increasingly at risk for hunger and in danger of homelessness, resulting from the weak economy coupled with high prices for food and fuel,” said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, Co-Chair of the Conference’s Task Force on Hunger and Homelessness.

Some 83 percent of those cities surveyed said that homelessness had increased over the past year, and nearly two-thirds said there had been a rise in the number of families forced out of their homes.

Tenants in buildings where the landlord faced foreclosure were said to be the most vulnerable to becoming homeless, and most cities reported that their waiting lists for public housing or housing vouchers were closed to new applicants due to excess demand.

Cities also cited the high cost of housing as a main cause of hunger rather than the recent increase in food prices. Affordable housing was the most commonly cited response when asked what would be most helpful in addressing hunger.

So when big business gets bailouts where does that leave the average person? Where are the bailouts for the foreclosure victims and the hungry babies?

We need a new set of priorities for this nation. One that puts people before profits, and human rights before corporate rights. Send your voice to our leaders and sign these petitions today:

Make Worldwide Hunger a Priority

Tell Our Next President: Fight Extreme Poverty

Tell Obama: Support Human Rights

Read more: homelessness, human, hunger, poverty, rights

Image: * Ahmad Kavousian * at Flickr under Creative Commons License

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Sr Clarefrancis A.

7:31PM PST on Dec 15, 2008

All people no matter where they live have the right to have their basic needs taken care of. Even prisioners have their basic needs catered for,so why should those who have not offended society be denied this basic right. America doesn't have a monopoly of misdirecting their priorities. Australia, also has the "Working poor". Those who work for a living, but who earn insufficient to satisfy their basic needs.The Working poor, by their misfortune are unable to earn encough wages to sustain even the most basic way of life,despite working a full working week.
Even the Welfare Agencies often don't recognise the Working Poor as genuine Poor in need of assistance. Whilst this attitude is slowly disolving in the Community, there is still much more progress to be made.
No matter the circumstance,by virtue of being alive entitles all to be sustained with the basic needs, until such time as they are able to provide sustenance for themselves. Presently, the world appears to be a hostile place with very little regard for the sick,homeless,dying and aged. Its about time that All Nations took stock of their attitudes and worked together at erradercating Global Poverty in a Pro Active manner instead of waiting for another Nation to take the reigns. No one Nation should be responsbile, but All Nations need to unite together to stop the disintergration of Human Dignity which seems to be a world wide issue.

send a green star

Randy P.

6:52PM PST on Dec 15, 2008

It is indeed sometimes mindboggling how we prioritize things in America. Of course, there's nothing like an obvious meltdown of the financial markets to get everyone's attention. The problems of the homeless and soon-to-be homeless are not so visible, so they tend to get overlooked.

IMO, this is often more an issue of the characteristics of the problem (such as the visibility noted above) vs the compassion of the masses. e.g. My grandparents weren't exactly the most supportive of racial equality, yet they'd go out of their way to help their friends of color. We sometimes look past the human reality of the situation when it’s generalized and not urgent… but when we see the individuals and the pain, our compassion shines through.

There are a lot of good minds working to overcome these hurdles, but you’re right, the bailouts (and many other large gov’t expenditures… such as that little thing called “war”) make one wonder where our priorities really are…