Why should someone help the poor and the homeless?
Because the cost of doing nothing is a weaker society.
That’s the message that was delivered at a forum sponsored by HomeFront during the annual Hunger and Homeless Awareness Week, which was marked from Nov. 16-24.
The panel discussion, which was held Nov. 21 at Labyrinth Books in Princeton, was sponsored by HomeFront, the Lawrence Township-based nonprofit group that helps the homeless and the working poor.
The panel discussion featured six speakers that included a Princeton University researcher, the director of the City of Trenton’s Department of Health and Human Services and the executive director of the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey.
Each of the speakers offered their perspective on the topic of hunger and homelessness.
Evictions happen everywhere, and it all comes down to the shortage of affordable housing, said Lavar Edmonds, a researcher in Princeton University’s Sociology Department.
More than 20 million families nationwide are “rent-burdened,” Edmonds said. This means they pay at least 30% of their income for housing.
Between 2000-15, he said, rents increased on average by 15%, while household income remained flat. The gap frequently leads to evictions because households are unable to keep pace with rent increases.
In 2016, there were 3.5 million evictions nationwide, Edmonds said. This compares to 1 million foreclosures on past-due mortgages in 2009, which was the peak of the foreclosure crisis, he said.
“You can see the eviction rate is three times the foreclosure rate, and it spirals downward from there,” Edmonds said.
Eviction leads to homelessness, and there are not many safety nets in place, he said. About 75% of the households that are eligible for help either don’t know about it or did not receive it.
“When you get an eviction on your record,” Edmonds said, it is more difficult to find housing. Landlord-tenant courts issue data about evictions, and people who have been evicted cannot find another place to live. Landlords are aware of the eviction, he said.
“Eviction is a landlord-tenant thing. There is no money to pay the rent, but it’s so much bigger than that. It affects the children, too. It trickles down into the community. Eviction drives them into poverty,” Edmonds said.
“I do research and I deal with numbers. It’s not just in New York City; it’s here in your own community,” Edmonds told the attendees.
Renee Koubiadis, the executive director of the Anti-Poverty Network of New Jersey, agreed with Edmonds that eviction leads to poverty.
Sometimes, a tenant will challenge the eviction in court, but even if the tenant wins the case, the fact that there was an eviction proceeding is entered on the county court records, Koubiadis said.
There are companies that sell the list of those names to landlords, Koubiadis said. They can deny to rent to a prospective tenant who was involved in a landlord-tenant dispute, so the family has to “couch surf” or sleep in their car, she said.
“These are the people we work with, the kids who sit next to our kids in school,” Koubiadis said.
There is legislation pending in the State Legislature that would prevent the results of a landlord-tenant case that results in an eviction from being released for 60 days, she said.
“This would be huge to ameliorate the crisis of eviction,” Koubiadis said.
Koubiadis said that when she was growing up, it was possible for a family to “get by” on one income. If the bread-winner was out of work, there was enough in savings to manage until he found another job, she said.
But today, nearly half of all households struggle to make ends meet, Koubiadis said. Two out of five families often have to choose which of the bare necessities – food, housing and child care – will be paid for.
“They can’t afford them all,” Koubiadis said.
But it’s not just an eviction for not paying the rent, which is the most common reason for ousting a tenant and which leads to homelessness. It is also people who find an abandoned house, make a few repairs and then rent it to an unsuspecting family.
That’s what happens in the City of Trenton, said Shakira Abdul-Ali. She is the director of the City of Trenton’s Department of Health and Human Services.
The city has a skeleton staff, which makes it hard to keep track of all the vacant buildings, Abdul-Ali said.
“People will get into an abandoned house, fix it up a little bit and rent it out when they do not own it. Someone comes along and needs housing and they pay $1,000 a month,” Abdul-Ali said.
“There is a problem and they call the landlord, who does not call them back because he does not own it. Then they call the city, and we have to tell them, ‘You have to leave.’ This contributes to the homeless population,” she said.
At that point, the family may call on HomeFront.
Sarah Steward, HomeFront’s chief operating officer, offered HomeFront’s perspective on homelessness.
The average age of a homeless child is 7 years old, Steward said. Half of families are working at least 40 hours a week, but still cannot make ends meet.
“The HomeFront homeless hotline gets 30 or 40 calls a day. I thought I would hear the most fantastical stories (about why a family is homeless), but it’s much more mundane. It’s a car accident and they lose their job,” she said.
“When you live close to the edge, losing your job puts you over the edge,” Steward said.
HomeFront’s mission is to end homelessness, and it does so through its four core beliefs, Steward said.
The first core belief is that all people deserve safe, secure housing, which HomeFront provides through several programs.
HomeFront also believes that with the right tools, everyone can succeed. It may be getting a high school equivalency degree, getting job training or being coached in life skills, she said. HomeFront has programs to meet those needs.
Its third core belief is that a family needs basic necessities to live a life of dignity, Steward said. Clients can get clothing, furniture and other necessities at HomeFront’s Free Store in Trenton.
The final core belief is nurturing young children so they can have a vision of another life. HomeFront’s goal for 30 years has been to put a roof over their heads, but it believes that education and enrichment are the solutions to the challenge, Steward said.