In the richest country in the world on any given night, anywhere between 744,313 and 3.8 million people are without a roof over their heads. This is not difficult to understand when one considers the fact that 36.4 million Americans live in poverty – a statistic that becomes especially alarming when one takes into account the unrealistic stringency of the requirements people must meet to fit into that category. A family of four, for example, must make $20,000 or less before being considered “below the poverty line.” \nWith millions of people living in poverty and the numbers of foreclosure filings soaring as a result of the ongoing housing slump, it is no surprise that the problem of homelessness is growing. Now we have an opportunity to start rectifying this trend through the National Affordable Housing Trust Fund Act, which will be considered by the full U.S. House of Representatives in early October. This bill would provide funding to develop and refurbish 1.5 million affordable homes over the next 10 years, channeling 75 percent of the funds toward households earning less than 30 percent of an area’s median income. We must urge our legislators to support this bill and thus take an important step in what is now a losing battle against homelessness.
Isabel Estévez\nBloomington resident
