JAISAL NOOR: Welcome to The Real News Network.
I'm Jaisal Noor in Baltimore.
A so-called polar vortex has brought record low temperatures from the Midwest to the East
Coast.
With wind chills reported as low as -70 degrees, many cities, like Baltimore, issued special
advisories for their homeless populations, making emergency services and shelters available.
Now joining us to discuss this is Adam Schneider.
He's the director of community relations for Health Care for the Homeless here in Baltimore.
Thank you so much for joining us.
ADAM SCHNEIDER: Thank you.
NOOR: So, Adam, talk about what these record low temperatures mean for the homeless today.
We know here in Baltimore at least 3,000 people are homeless every night.
The highs on Tuesday are expected to be in the teens.
SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
I mean, the experience of homelessness is one that is very difficult to survive.
People experiencing homelessness are three to four times more likely to die prematurely
than their housed counterparts.
And temperatures like this, weather like this is really--it's really unbearable.
And so it's laudable that there are these emergency responses that are intended to help
people get off the streets, at least for the time being, when the weather's so terrible.
NOOR: And so this response involves either optional or mandatory placement into homeless
shelters.
Talk about what this means and if this is an effective solution.
SCHNEIDER: Well, I mean, it's not an effective solution to the problem of homelessness, but
it is an effective response to the immediate need.
Right?
The immediate need tonight is to ensure that there are places for people to go anytime
tonight so that they don't freeze to death on our streets.
An effective response to homeless is to ensure that adequate housing is available for people,
to ensure that people's incomes are livable, to ensure that there are supportive services,
health services, the things that all of us need in order to maintain ourselves into housing.
But that's the discussion that we need to have had yesterday.
That's the discussion that we need to be having tomorrow and the next day.
Today, it's really important that we be having this discussion about how to ensure that people
are able to get off the streets and into places that are warmer and safer.
NOOR: And on that point, cities like Baltimore have at least 10,000 vacant homes.
The actual number might be many times that amount.
Talk about why this issue of homelessness exists in this country we live in, the wealthiest
country in history.
SCHNEIDER: Yeah.
Well, I mean, homelessness, you know, many people don't remember a time that there wasn't
mass homelessness, but for people who are a little bit older, they'll remember a time
when there wasn't this number of people, there wasn't such a diverse cross-section of people
experiencing homelessness.
Homelessness fundamentally is caused by policy decisions--most importantly, policy decisions
that have led to stagnant, in fact, reduced wages over time and a real disinvestment in
affordable housing.
So that's fundamentally the causes.
Now, there are, you know, tens of thousands of vacant buildings in Baltimore City.
I'm sure that there are people who are going to be spending the night in those buildings
tonight, as there are many nights.
You know.
So when we talk about the number of people experiencing homelessness, the number of people
who need shelters, you know, oftentimes it's an undercount.
Right?
There are people who are doubled up with family and friends tonight.
Tomorrow, who knows?
There are people who are sleeping in abandoned buildings who weren't counted the last time
we did homeless census.
So it's really, you know, important that we be doing everything we can to expand, as much
as we can, the emergency shelter today, and then ensuring that there's an adequate supply
of affordable housing tomorrow and in the future.
NOOR: And so just in the last few weeks and months, we've seen food stamps cut, unemployment
benefits that expired.
Federal sequestration has hit many agencies that provide services for the homeless, that
provide housing, federal housing programs.
Yet you still see reports claiming that homelessness is in decline.
What's your response?
SCHNEIDER: Well, I think that--a couple of responses.
I think that in this, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, the fact that
we would cut food subsidies for people who are poor, for poor kids, many of them, is
really beyond the pale.
I mean, it makes us--we should be thinking, who are we, when we're allowing--when our
leaders are making these sorts of decisions.
You know, the idea that homelessness is in the decline is something that I've read and
seen.
I think it's highly dubious.
You mentioned cuts to food stamps.
You mentioned cuts through sequestration.
You mentioned cuts as a result of unemployment benefits not being extended.
I mean, homelessness is largely the result of cuts to the Department of Housing and Urban
Development's budget over the past 40 years.
So today HUD's budget is about 40 percent of what it was in 1979.
Cuts through the Carter administration, the Reagan administration, the Bush administration,
the Clinton administration, the Bush administration, the Obama administration--we haven't even
gotten back to where we were in 1979.
And that disinvestment in affordable housing at the federal level has ripple effects at
the state and local level.
In Baltimore City, you know, we've seen the demolition of large swaths, 40 percent--over
40 percent of the once occupied public housing units have been demolished in Baltimore City.
And that's not unique.
Nationally, this is what's happening.
At the same time as we are reducing the supply of housing affordable to people who are very
poor, we are increasing the number of people who are very poor.
Wages are stagnant.
People who have disabilities are living on, you know, a paltry amount that isn't enough
to rent an affordable--a efficiency unit.
Even the minimum wage, the federal minimum wage, there's not a single jurisdiction in
the United States where a minimum-wage worker working full-time can afford housing at the
fair market rent.
So it's all of these things that create homelessness and have created homelessness over the past
40 years.
And that's what we need to be focused on, as I say, going forward.
Today it's really important that we focus on getting people off the streets and making
sure that there are places that people can go that they feel safe, that they feel respected.
But tomorrow and in the future we need to worry about not just how to manage this problem,
which we've been doing for 40 years, but really how to end it.
NOOR: Adam Schneider, thank you so much for joining us.
SCHNEIDER: My pleasure.
Absolutely.
NOOR: Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.