Rising Costs and Shrinking Wages Have Pushed 1 Out of 2 Americans into Conditions That Lead to Homelessness
Meet Madison. She’s 5’4, wears monochromatic pantsuits, and skips lunch to catch up on grading her students’ homework. She did everything they told her to do. She went to a mid-level college and earned a respectable degree. And although she secretly dreamed of becoming a flashy website designer, she took a more realistic route, teaching elementary school students all the things they need to learn in kindergarten.
In a way, Madison is all of us, standing in the grocery store aisle, marveling at the price of eggs, sauntering in late to her second job because there are only so many hours in the day. Sure, she cuts corners, but overall, she’s a solid individual just trying to make ends meet. There are days when she has to choose between paying the rent and buying the higher-quality cheese, but on the surface, it seems like it’s no big deal. Any number of disasters would completely level her, given that she only has $250 in her savings account to spare. She rarely thinks about it.
Madison views her life through an economically optimistic lens, even though her car is in the shop and she can’t afford that root canal she needs. Even basic necessities like food, hygiene products, and household goods are a financial strain, but she refuses to see this.
It’s not because her student loan payments cost more than she makes in a quarter. It’s not the fact that her asthma medicine feels a bit overpriced for her budget, making it difficult to breathe. Madison refuses to internally acknowledge her financial struggles because she’s one of the 49% of Americans classified as being below middle class. She doesn’t understand how she got there, and she doesn’t think it’s where she belongs.
A classic overachiever, Madison always said yes to things that seemed virtuous, like studying, laboring, and volunteering, and no to things that felt indulgent, like love, parties, and overpriced lattes. Wasn’t she on the honor roll? Didn’t she lead the soccer team? Isn’t she the best fundraising teacher around? And more importantly, shouldn’t her hard work have counted for something?
Many people believe they are middle class because they feel that they should be. They did all the things, worked all the hours, pulled the all-nighters, and paid all their credit card balances on time. They were thoughtful, hard-working, and self-sacrificing, actions that were supposed to pay off on the back end, positioning them well above the middle-class, not below it.
This was the unspoken promise, the expectation the government seeks to “rebalance” now that the bill is due. They told us that a forty-hour workweek and a couple of extra barista shifts would be enough, that everyone could go to college, and that there would be an abundance of vacancies in high-paying positions in that field of study, but that just isn’t true.
The middle class is shrinking. It’s completely disappearing. And with 1 out of 2 Americans now falling firmly below that middle class line, this means more homelessness — and not just any kind of homelessness, the kind that can happen to Madison, the kind that can happen to you.
Economic Inequality is Driving Housing Instability
“Policies that favor the wealthy have led to the growth of economic inequality over the past decades, shrinking the middle class,” explained Maria Foscarinis in an exchange with Invisible People reporters.
Foscarinis is the author of “And Housing for All: The Fight to End Homelessness In America,” a book she wrote to summarize her 35 years of advocating for housing justice. She is the founder of The National Homelessness Law Center, the organization that launched the monumental “Housing Not Handcuffs” campaign. Foscarinis was not surprised to learn that 49% of Americans are now considered below middle-class, a position that makes them increasingly vulnerable to homelessness.
“A recent study shows that between 1989 and 2022, the richest 1% of households accumulated almost 1,000 times more wealth than the poorest 20%,” said Foscarinis. “The second Trump administration’s massive cuts to social safety net programs have made this abysmal reality much worse, leaving more Americans struggling to meet basic needs: for food, healthcare, education, and housing. As housing costs continue to skyrocket, half of all renters are paying over 30% of their incomes on rent, with many paying much more. This puts more and more people at risk of homelessness.”
With an ever-shrinking middle class, the safety net that once stood between a financial emergency and transitional homelessness (this is homelessness that happens suddenly due to a life-altering event like death in the family or job loss) is no more.
And in its place is this concept of how things should be that does not reflect present-day reality. Here are some numbers to put things into perspective:
- Each year, 250,000 GoFundMe campaigns are created for help with medical expenses in the U.S. People cannot afford to live.
- Each year, 125,000 GoFundMe campaigns are created for help with funeral expenses in the U.S. People cannot afford to die.
- Billionaires are 4,000 times more likely to become politicians than everyday working citizens. People are not permitted to represent themselves politically.
- While 49% of Americans are classified as below middle class, everyday expenses are unaffordable for 70% of Americans, meaning that even being middle class does not automatically shield people from financial hardship. At this point, it’s just a worthless label meant to signify social prominence.
- Property taxes have increased 40%
- National full-coverage auto insurance rates skyrocketed by 50%
- Home insurance increased 70% at a time when most people can’t afford to purchase a median-priced home, which costs almost half a million dollars.
They will tell you homelessness happens after a series of exceptionally bad decisions. You will believe them until it is you in that tent.
They will say sweeping tent encampments ends the homeless crisis. You will believe them until it is you paying to live out of a government-sanctioned internment camp fitted with metal shacks the same exact size as prison cells.
They will find fancy words to explain why we should give all of our money to billionaires, spend all of our taxes on expansionist war-mongering regimes, and bail out the banks instead of the people when the markets start crashing. You will believe them because the algorithm promotes it, and the repetition makes it easier to digest these lies.
But believing them is what got us in the predicament we’re already facing. Perhaps it is time to believe in ourselves, to pool our collective power and flip the switch on the homeless crisis before it’s truly too late to do so.
Talk To Your Legislators About Protecting the Working Class by Making Housing a Human Right
Current legislation reflects the desires of the billionaire class, placing those wants over your needs. Fortunately, as the middle class continues to vanish, one sobering truth can save us. There are now even more of us than there are of them. Stand with the working class by advocating for the human right to housing.
Contact your representatives and tell them to represent you by drafting laws that make living affordable, perhaps even comfortable, for us.