The Changing Face of Homelessness
March/April 1998 issue of The Mission Light
When Rev. and Mrs. David Barnhart Bulkley founded City Union Mission in 1924, the streets that made up Skid Row in Kansas City yielded the smell of alcoholism and poverty, much as they do today. But that's where the similarities end. During the past 74 years of ministry, the Mission's staff has retooled what John W. McDonald called "The Repair Shop for Human Lives" time and again as the trends of homelessness have changed.
In this article, we'll introduce you to those trends. We think you'll agree that though cause and affect may look different through each decade, the answer remains the same in Jesus Christ and His redemptive power to save!
1920's
In 1924, thousands of indigent men roamed Kansas City's Skid Row. Policy manuals, sociological studies and glossaries describe the homeless in terms of a male population - the hobo, the tramp and the bum:
Hobo: a proud homeless man; an independent traveling laborer who will beg on occasion.
Tramp: a degraded hobo, a vivid storyteller who travels constantly and will work, beg or steal when forced.
Bum: the bottom of the ladder, he is unemployable, a Skid Row vagrant; usually old, decrepit, beaded, stinking and lazy as the devil.
Little mention is made of homeless women in the well-researched books written in the 19th and early 20th century. Still, the description of the "Hay Bag," sounds painfully familiar: the lowest type of female bum, who exchanges sexual favors for a bottle.
During the first half of the century most poverty-stricken families survived in shanties and slums or traveled as migrant workers and gypsies. Penniless single women "lived" in brothels. County poor farms and orphanages sheltered the elderly and orphaned children.
Society sympathized with the plight of homeless men, but found their drunkenness and joblessness repulsive. The lines of acceptable and unacceptable behavior were clearly drawn and few on either side stepped over the lines.
1960's
The 1960s introduced political and moral confusion with the Vietnam War, epidemic use of drugs and a disintegrating values system. Shelters still operated almost exclusively for men over fifty who had lost dignity, family and jobs through their own private wars with "booze."By 1971, bums and tramps gave way to younger heroin addicts and alcoholics. Vietnam War veterans showed up in shelters, adding their own mental and emotional problems to an increasingly complex population.
Up to this point, Kansas City had managed to keep up with the demand for low cost housing. Slums, crumbling family homes, shanties and government housing provided shelter for thousands of the potentially homeless. But by 1978, urban renewal had taken its toll on available housing for the poor. Emergency shelter for families became a pressing issue among social service agencies in Kansas City.
1980's
While the numbers of men on the streets stabilized in the 1980s, America watched family homelessness grow. The old fashioned bum's problems seemed elementary next to the chaotic tailspin so many homeless families experienced.Federal funding for public housing was cut; slums were torn down. Crack cocaine, mental illness, domestic abuse, welfare, "Babies having babies," absent fathers and gang violence plagued families already lacking job skills and education needed in a technologically demanding age. And festering at the foundation was an overpowering attitude of failure among the poor -- the sense that "it simply wasn't worth trying anymore."
Today
Today, the face of homelessness continues to evolve. While men still "ride the rails" from one town to the next, single moms and dads struggle to hold families together while their mates give in to drug and gambling addictions. A growing number of these single-parent families are headed by fathers.As generational poverty grows, money management skills decline. Parents, who once bought and prepared whole uncooked chickens and dry beans, rely more than ever on fast food and prepared products. The lure of microwave ovens, VCRs and new CE players distract from the uninteresting monthly utility bill and rent payment.
Conveniences like easy credit may at first soothe a family's situation, but as people at every income level know, the pull of credit cards and loans that put "extra cash in your pocket" is a wolf in sheep's clothing if you can't pay the resulting debt.
The introduction of gambling casinos has taken its toll on families as well. The attraction of making money at "the boats" most often results in losing the little money poverty-stricken families have to pay bills and buy food.
Low self respect and a sense of failure is a hand-me-down as these and other problems are passed from parents to children. Today, over 25 percent of our teenage population will drop out of high school; 40 percent of black students and over 50 percent of Hispanic students will not graduate. (From "Parenting Teens With Love and Logic.")
These newer trends, along with the old diehard issues that have plagued our nation for decades, almost guarantee that homelessness in Kansas City will continue to grow.
As our country casts off Judeo-Christian values in favor of moral relativism, many in our society are able to throw integrity out the window and still look successful. What was once unacceptable has become acceptable - except for those who aren't functional enough or financially able to keep up the look of respectability.
Looking back over the decades of this century, perhaps this statement by Lorraine Minor, Director of Family Services at City Union Mission, summarizes it best: "As society goes, so go the trends of homelessness." which makes the observer ask, "Who is next?"
