By Adam Schneider, Director of Community Relations at HCH
This week HCH joins communities around the country in commemoration of National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. Since originating at Villanova University in 1975, Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week has been held annually – and commemorated in communities across the country – the week before Thanksgiving as an opportunity to raise awareness and promote action to address the most vicious symptoms of poverty.
By some standards, Maryland is the wealthiest state in the United States – the wealthiest country in the history of the world. As such, the statistics are staggering:
- One quarter of Baltimoreans live below the federal poverty line – $11,490 for a single individual; $23,550 for a family of four. [1]
- Nearly one in six Marylanders is food insecure. About 16% of respondents reported in 2012 not having enough money to buy food that they or their family needed at some point(s) during the preceding twelve months. [2]
- At least 3,000-4,000 people experience homelessness on any given night in Baltimore City, and many times this number are served annually by the City’s homeless service provider system. [3]
- The “housing wage” for an efficiency unit in the Baltimore Metro Area – i.e., the wage needed for a fulltime worker to be able to afford housing without paying more than 30% of income) – is $16.27, which is more than twice the minimum wage. The housing wage for a two bedroom unit in the Baltimore Metro Area is $24.06. [4]
In recent years in the Baltimore Area, students from Baltimore City Community College, Coppin State University, Goucher College, Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University, MICA, McDaniel College, Morgan State University, Stevenson University, Towson University, the University of Maryland-Baltimore, and UMBC have organized and participated in events commemorating National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week.
The Baltimore Area “Faces of Homelessness” Speakers Bureau, a community education initiative that seeks to help people better understand homelessness by sharing the person stories of people’s lives on the streets, is working with area students and schools on numerous activities to commemorate this year’s Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week. For more information about local events – or to schedule a speaker at your school, faith community, civic organization, or other group – contact the “Faces of Homeless”.
Homelessness, hunger and poverty are driven by conscious policy decisions made by our elected officials. As we prepare for a time of thanksgiving, let us recommit ourselves to engaging in the service and advocacy necessary to end the conditions that create and maintain hunger, homelessness, and poverty in our communities.
Take action:
- Join the Baltimore Area “Faces of Homelessness” Speakers Bureau in their work to educate and activate people on issues of homelessness and poverty – this week and throughout the year.
- Contact your member of the Baltimore City Council and encourage them to support effective solutions to poverty and homelessness, such as affordable housing and livable incomes. Further criminalizing panhandling only exacerbates the problems faced by vulnerable individuals by creating a criminal record that hinders their access to employment and housing.
- Join the growing coalition of Marylanders pushing to increase the state’s minimum wage, which is too low for a fulltime minimum wage worker to afford housing anywhere in the state.
- Urge your members of Congress to oppose any cuts to the Supplemental Food and Nutrition Program – commonly called “food stamps” – which the House and Senate are poised to cut.
- Join the United for Homes Campaign to fund the National Low Income Housing Trust Fund – and urge your members of Congress to support policies and resources necessary to ensure everyone can go home.
