Take a Moment to Appreciate the Roof over Your Head

We’re about to enter the season with too many holidays to name, and before the turkeys and shopping (and not shopping!) and Giving Tuesday arrive on us, we’d like to highlight one special day that deserves a lot of attention.

Early next month (December 3rd) we’ll celebrate National Roof Over Your Head Day.  It’s a day for those of us who have a home to recognize how fortunate we are. It’s a day for all of us to try to bring more attention to that part of the population who do not have a home.

The United Nations estimated a few years ago that there are more than 100 million people around the world who do not have a home. That’s a scary number. Closer to home, we have more than a half-million people homeless on any given night, with one-third of that population sleeping in unsheltered locations. (According to HUD, in the department’s 2013 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report to Congress.) The good news is, homelessness in the United States is on the decline. That same report shows that homelessness has declined among both sheltered and unsheltered homeless populations in the years since 2007.

Homeless people who live in harsh northern climates, such as in Alaska and Wisconsin, two of Weathervane Strategies’ key regions, have particularly difficult lives.

It’s worth watching this video from The Weather Channel, that discusses being homeless in Anchorage, “America’s coldest city.” (This NYTimes article from 2013 about homelessness in Kenai is also worth reading.)

Though the nationwide trend is a decline in the numbers of homeless residents,  in Wisconsin, the Institute for Community Alliances report that there were more than 27,000 homeless residents in 2013. This is an 18 percent increase since 2010. Some 64 percent of homeless people served by ICA in 2013 were newly homeless—this was the first year that they sought assistance. And, ICA reports, many of these people are in rural areas with little infrastructure or services.  

Homeless populations in your community can be hard to serve. People who find themselves to be without a permanent residence but who still have shelter—putting up at a friends’ house, living in temporary accommodation—may not identify themselves as being “homeless” even though they are still at risk.

As our teammate Anne Pfauth wrote this summer, housing is everyone’s business!