AP Poll Shows Concern About Homelessness

[zapp]

By The Associated Press

American public opinion on homelessness, from an Associated Press Poll conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs Feb. 11-13 among 1,001 adults (sampling error plus or minus 3 percentage points):



1. How serious is the problem of homelessness in this country? Is it very serious, somewhat serious, not too serious, or not at all serious? ............

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050226/ap_on_re_us/homeless_poll

[sweetheart]

1. The problem is that homelessness "IS" disenfranchisement

In a healthy society, a homeless person retains their civil rights,
but in "ours" those rights are contingent on a home. This makes the
issue of principal concern to anyone supporting democracy.

[Us vs Them]

2. I honestly cant leave the house without being panhandled for money

It really bothers me to have to turn a majority of them down (for the sake of my own survival). It also really bothers me that they are forced to function in a society that would rather see them freeze to death than have to 'deal' with them.

[Rex]

3. They must be seeing the effect of Bush's domestic policy.

AARP (old folks) is next!

[Warpy]

4. Actually, the problem started with Reagan

although the seeds had been sown some years earlier, as misguided but well intentioned civil liberties lawyers tried to get people released from state mental institutions to the community, which was supposed to provide services for them.

Well, the state hosptials closed and the local services never materialized.

Enter Reagan and his tax cuts to the best off, and his tax increases on the rest of us. That spurred a wave of gentrification in the inner city, and that forced a lot of really marginal workers out of their homes and onto the street as mansions turned into rooming houses became mansions once again.

Those of us who were adults before Reagan remember that the homeless were few, usually skid row alcoholics who'd been unable to panhandle enough for a fleabag hotel for the night and those who didn't have a military or civilian pension to keep them in rundown rooming houses. With Reagan we saw first homeless marginal workers, then homeless families whose adult members were employed but not earning enough to afford housing.

It's going to get worse before it gets better. We have another 3 years before we can rid ourselves of this scum, unless a depression and major war wake the heartland dimwits out of their mass hypnosis.

[llmart]

5. I'm one of those who is old enough to remember......

the pre-Reagan era. And you are absolutely correct about what you said. Homelessness was rampant once Reagan's economic policies hit and it is hitting again because of the same policies.

I doubt seriously if the majority of Americans really care about homelessness. They just pay lip service to it and give a gentle tsk-tsk when hearing about it. Same goes for the death and destruction of Iraq. They slap a stupid magnet on their car and that assuages their guilt.

[barb162]

9. Bush is doing Reaganomics but in a way vastly more

destructive because of the trade agreements, the jobs going overseas, etc. that's happening now. We will never recover from what is happening now. The only reason homelessness isn't worse is that people are moving in with relatives, friends, etc.

[area51]

15. "We will never recover from what is happening now."

That's what I fear, and a lot of people have no idea of just how hard it is to get a job now.

---

"Prosperity is just around the corner." -- Herbert Hoover
"The economy has turned a corner." -- GW Bush

Herbert Hoover = GW Bush

Neither man cared about the Depression their economic policies created.

[llmart]

18. And the media doesn't talk too much about it either.

But I think the people can see it for themselves, especially if they know someone who lost their job and has been unemployed or forced to work at at a Wal-Mart type job. In America we have the "out of sight, out of mind" mentality. People think there must be something wrong with you if you can't get a good paying job.

Yes, we truly have become (in four years under Dopey) a country of those who are very, very comfortable and those who just make ends meet.

[barb162]

20. just in software alone, 400,000 jobs have gone to Asia. I see

some very highly-educated people working part-time at Home Depot,Menards, the grocery stores, etc. because they can't find anything else. There's a man in my town who started a web site on what is happening just to software people. He has been out of work a few years and he used to make way over a 100,000 per year. We are basically giving away our technology and firing tech people and shipping it all overseas so corporations can make more money. The next advances in science and tech wont be coming from the USA as the highly-educated and trained science and tech people are working 3 part-time jobs bagging groceries. In the long run we are taking a disastrous course.

[Daphne08]

10. I certainly remember pre-Reagan times.

Life was much different back then.

(Oh, and let's not forget about GHW Bush's “thousand points of light” crap.)

[barb162]

21. my favorite memory of Bush1 was when he was in a JC Penney

store trying to get people to buy gloves to get the economy moving again.

[stevebreeze]

6. I do some volunteer work at a homeless shelter in west of Chicago

Most of the people in the shelter work. Most work full-time. What the GOP tax cut at all cost rhetoric forgets is taxes are a small part of everyones income. Our standards of living would be far better off if wages go up rather then if taxes go down.

[barb162]

22. taax cuts didn't work under Reagan, Bush 1 and they're not

working now except for the rich. Supply side economics was proven ineffective under Reagan (even Stockman admitted it)and they don't care as it benefits the rich at the expense of the rest of America.

[barb162]

23. Just about the only jobs being created are low-pay retail jobs

and I wish Wall Street would concentrate on the monthly job numbers more and I wish they would be pointing out that we are nowhere near the promised 320,000 jobs per month Bush said would be created with his damn tax cuts. The composition of the jobs being created are really mostly low paying.

[Mountainman]

7. Well just add just a dash of conservative dogma, and a pinch of Christian

fundamentalist morality to the problem and all will be well. "We don't have to worry about the homeless because it is their fault they are homeless not ours. Beside we have a much worse problem with gays wanting to get married."


I sometimes thing the right believes like Scrooge. "If they'd rather die then let them be about it and help to reduce the surplus population."

[Erika]

8. Reagan equated the rich with Godliness

The poor were lazy and deserved what they get according to him and today's neocons.

The Bible says we will be judged by how we treat the least amongst us. There is also Christ's Golden Rule. The GOP's definition of Christianity has nothing to do with Biblical teachings.

[parsifal_e]

11. How can....

How come the richest country in the world has even one single homeless person.... what a disgrace.

[Erika]

12. True

Kuwaitis are all given a home at the age of 21 and given a annual income. They hire "migrants" for housekeeping and landscaping purposes. They have free health care for all.

Maybe I'll apply as a job for a housekeeper in Kuwait so I can have health coverage. Evidently the corporate globalist pipeline who feeds the Bush family also feeds them. Maybe they will share the crumbs.

[alarimer]

13. I doubt that most people really care

they are just telling the pollster what they think they should say. Most people I know, when asked about the homeless who panhandle here, say they should get a job.

[Erika]

14. As the article pointed out

many who sleep in the homeless shelters have a job with deficient pay.

[ninkasi]

16. Homelessness is a huge problem

This country has it's priorities so hopelessly screwed up, I don't know what it's going to take to become a civilized nation. We are supposed to be the richest country in the world, but the fact that the bulk of the wealth is held by a relative few make this meaningless.

We have homeless elderly, mentally ill, families with children, people who had jobs, and lost them, causing them to lose their homes, and some who just never had an upbringing that did a blessed thing to see that they were prepared to be self supporting in this world.

Perhaps some of the fundies who spend so much time telling women what they may, or may not, decide concerning their own bodies and destinies, could put forth the same amount of effort to eradicate homelessness. After all, they claim that all life is sacred, which automatically includes people unfortunate enough to live on the streets and look for meals in dumpsters.

[EFerrari]

27. The fastest growing demographic among the homeless:

Single mothers and their kids.

And, it may be that the poll numbers have changed because more people are worried about going homeless themselves.

[Erika]

17. But Bush Says We have a Great Economy

and he's brought us out of a depression. His sycophants agree with him 100%. Roughly translated (sweep the poor, the sick, and the kids under the rug) and enjoy our economy! Don't give them a 2nd thought.

[barb162]

24. Bush could not possibly have passed a basic economics class

and he got through school just being "passed" because his father was important. He literally knows nothing about basic economics;if he did he wouldn't be running these incredible deficits

[SmokingJacket]

19. Housing used to be MUCH cheaper relative to income.

Maybe some economist can tell me why rents/housing cost so much more -- is it something to do with low interest rates driving the housing boom? I have no idea.

But a cheap, decent apartment is a thing of the past.

[EFerrari]

28. In the 70s, people budgeted 1/4 of their income for housing.

Now, isn't it much higher than that? Nearly half?

[Jamel]

25. IF BUSH WERE BLACK OR POOR

He'd be in jail, in the streets or 6 feet under. If anyone has a personality of failure, it's him, and he would be the perfect example of the very few people who DESERVE to be poor. He's a "priveleged deadbeat", and he shows disdain for anyone who doesn't have his good fortune.

[davhill]

26. Homelessness has changed

It is no longer the stereotype alcoholic hobo. These are working class families and elderly who cannot afford the high rent costs.

[stepnw1f]

29. True...

Just this morning I was driving my girlfriend to work when we came upon a homeless drunken man wearing military fatigue on the corner of the street we were on. I looked up into my rear-view mirror and there an older man in his late thirties was making fun of the guy. A young boy about 12 sat next to him on the passenger side, probably his son, laughing along with him. Note: nothing like making Daddy proud.

Now I know where these assholes on the right get their information and attitude towards the world from.

And yes he had a big American flag on the back of his truck.

[MountainLaurel]

30. Grrrr

I almost got myself beat up once for tearing a new one in some rich white frat boy who was throwing coins at a homeless guy -- told him he was a worthless piece of shit. Didn't go over well.

:shrug:

[stepnw1f]

31. It Was Worth It

People need to make a stand regardless of fear. Good job!!!