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It cant. Most homeless are addicts or mentally ill.
Homelessness is a very big topic that includes issues like mental illness and addiction; it’s not just about poverty.
Lmao at the thought of minimum wage even providing for anyone’s utilities.
Because they can’t.
But homelessness is more complex than that. A significant number of the homeless have mental health or addiction problems.
Plus, IIRC, the percentage of the homeless population in the US is on par with other Western nations.
For short-term homeless people, life happens. The minimum wage is enough to survive if you live with roommates and live extremely modestly but stuff happens. You don’t tend to have a huge financial cushion so if an unexpected expense pops up you might not be able to make rent. So maybe you’ll sleep in your car or crash on a friend’s couch for a couple of weeks until you get back on your feet.
For long-term homeless people, there are a lot of people who are addicted to drugs in the United States, and as it turns out drug addicts as a rule would prefer to do drugs rather than work.
> If minimum wage jobs can provide basic needs like housing rent, food, drinks
Federal minumum wage is $7.25/hr. x 176 working hours = $1276.
[As of February 2022, the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment in the United States reached $1,295.](https://www.statista.com/statistics/1063502/average-monthly-apartment-rent-usa/)
> why are there still many homeless in America?
[Top Causes of Homelessness](https://arlingtonlifeshelter.org/how-we-help/resources/causes-of-homelessness.html)
1. Addiction
1. Domestic Violence
1. Mentall Illness
1. Job Loss/Underemployment
1. Foreclosure
1. PTSD
1. Throw-away teens
1. Relational brokeness….
Full time at $8ish per hour is a gross monthly paycheck of about 1000.
Rent and utilities alone, even with roommates, can cost that much in a lot of the country.
They cannot unless you want to work 20 hours a day at multiple jobs and live in a rat’s nest of a building.
>If minimum wage jobs can provide basic needs like housing rent, food, drinks
Do they?
Drugs
to get and maintain a minimum wage job, you need to first have a place to live so you can have basic hygiene and a safe place to sleep. in much of the country, you also need a car or at least a reliable ride.
so if you find yourself without those things, it’s really hard to build back up. especially if you’re dealing with mental health issues or addiction.
getting clean off of drugs is incredibly challenging/sometimes impossible for people with resources and supportive families. imagine if you didn’t even have a bed.
1. Minimum wage is not a living wage and cannot price necessities.
2. Homelessness is a multi factor issue. I met some who have mental or substance abuse. The mental health in the US is horrible. We closed the psych hospitals and put people on the street.
3. Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck. A hospitalization could turn a middle class family homeless.
This question is opening a massive can of worms that needs an entire essay to properly explain. To sum it up into a few sentences:
minimum wage is not high enough to support a household with a standard 40hrs. This varies by state due to a whole array of statistics like housing costs, etc.
However….95% of businesses pay above minimum. Usually in the neighborhood of like $15/hour nowadays here in Ohio. I rarely see jobs posted for less than $12.
Onto the homeless issue…..there’s homeless people in every country. Some are there by unfortunate circumstance, and some are there by bad choices. Raising wages doesn’t help bad choices, but it can help the people who are actually there due to bad luck.
Minimum wage jobs cannot provide basic needs. It’s is below poverty level, and way below standard of living in major cities. But the vast majority of homeless have either mental illness or substance abuse issues that prevent them from holding a job.
The biggest untreated epidemic in the US is mental health. Studies show it worsened during COVID. And something like 80% of homeless people suffer from mental health disorders. Because of a lack of treatment options, these homeless people often self medicate with illicit drugs. This just exacerbates the problem.
It’s not simply a matter of affordable housing. Even in places where they have offered free apartments they experience a problem with homelessness.
I mean when I was younger a fair bit of my money went to medical bills for things my parent refused to have fixed so I worked two jobs. I was never quite homeless, but I understand how people might end up that way, things happen.
The vast majority of chronically / long term homeless people have mental illness and/or substance abuse issues and struggle to maintain employment.
Minimum wage is far too low to cover basic necessities in the vast majority of the country. There are people making well above minimum wage who still can’t afford to support themselves.
Because thats not the root cause of homelessness.
>If minimum wage jobs can provide basic needs like housing rent, food, drinks
Aha
Are you serious?
Minimum wage isn’t going to cover everything you’ve listed unless you split the cost with a couple of people or have public assistance.
I know a couple of young people from nice families who choose to be homeless. They’re not so hard core they won’t go to the shelter if it’s a freeze warning but otherwise they’re just out there. If you saw them cleaned up, you’d think they were hippies but they’re both living with mental illness and addiction that they choose to self medicate. I’m glad they have each other and their families check on them.
I also went to high school with a man who is partially homeless. He has a couple of kids who will take him in during the winter but usually by spring he has worn out his welcome and he’s back to the streets. He’s a hard core alcoholic. During one of the Astros parades I saw him partying in the street and later his picture was posted bc he was passed out on the curb after he pissed himself. He doesn’t have any teeth, fortunately a charity fixed him up with dentures. I talked with him after Hurricane Harvey and he just wants to live how he wants to live.
They can’t.
It can’t in a lot of the country, and in the places it can you’ll have so little wiggle room that any minor emergency puts you at risk of homelessness.
>If minimum wage jobs can provide basic needs
Except they can’t and that accounts for like 70-80% of our homeless and the other 20-30% are the crazies and addicts.
Minimum wage barely covers the gas it takes to get to the job.
Minimum wage jobs don’t provide that.
What do you think this is, the land of the free? /s
As for homelessness, there are a myriad of precursors
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question
Minimum wage in the US *doesn’t* afford a basic standard of living, which means that wages need to be raised, prices need to be cut, or both. Preferably both IMO.
As for systemic homelessness, that’s not simple nor easy to fix.
Watched a guy on YouTube. Peter sonatro(excuse the spelling)walk along Venice Beach(I think), and I remember them asking people about it. It seems some of them prefer it. Maybe just at that location, tho. But it was the enjoyment of living free and getting free food
It’s virtually impossible to live alone and independently on minimum wage in the US.
Yes, some HCOL areas have near double the Federal minimum wage, but housing and other essentials are near double
By way of comparison, when I was making near minimum wage, my rent for a studio was roughly 40% of my gross wages. It wasn’t fancy, but it was clean and secure.
Can you get a clean and secure studio apartment for 40% of minimum wage in your area today?
Homelessness is more driven by drugs and mental illness than anything else.
Minimum wage jobs do not in fact pay enough to provide those things
Because the minimum wage isn’t enough to provide those basic needs.
And as others have said, homelessness isn’t that simple. Most people who are chronically homeless also have mental health issues. In case you haven’t heard, the healthcare system in the US sucks. We don’t have free or affordable healthcare. And we sure as shit don’t have easily accessible mental healthcare.
So they tend to self medicate with things they do have access to, which are drugs and alcohol. Then they become addicted. And now you have someone with mental health AND addiction issues, and still no access to treatment for either of them.
The homeless people in my area are too mentally ill and/or drug addicted to hold a minimum wage job.
Man what a loaded question
Minimum wage in my area is $12/hr.
Assume full time work W-2 job for 2080 hours per year gets your to a gross of $25k per year.
There is employee FICA payroll tax for W-2 employees at a rate of 7.65%. This would be around $1,900.
There are federal taxes on this (assume single, no kids, standard deduction). After the standard deduction you’d be a hair into the 12% bracket. Around $1,250 would be owed to the fed.
Then there are state and local taxes. These can vary wildly depending on where you live.
In my state, after the standard deduction, you would owe $450.
In my city there is a 1% local income tax. You would owe $120.
So after all the taxes, you would take home $21,280.
Average rent in my area is $1,200/month. If you did not have roommates, you would have about $575 left to spend on all other expenses each month. Utilities, food, clothing, transportation, healthcare.
It is possible, but everything would be hard. You would not be able to save for emergencies, fun stuff, or nice new things.
All that is to say, the homeless problem has more to do with mental health than the minimum wage.
Minimum wage is no longer a living wage.
Homelessness in the US is below many other western countries.
Homeless population per 10,000 by country:
– **US – 17**
– Australia – 49
– Austria – 25
– Canada – 10
– Denmark – 11
– France – 45
– Germany – 31
– Greece – 37
– Ireland – 16
– New Zealand – 217
– Sweden – 36
– UK – 54
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_by_homeless_population
I’d consider New Zealand to have an excessive amount of homeless and UK to have many.
What I learned by looking at ‘poor’ countries where wages are very low and ‘rich’ countries with really high minimum wages is …. the market will adapt to the local situation.
I wish more people would figure this out.
i.e., in a ‘poor’ country, bread will be affordable to most of the population. There will be no $5 loaves of bread like in Australia where I am now where the minimum wage is $15 USD an hour.
The same was true in the US, where minimum wage was enough to get by in some places.
Things have changed a bit with whatever-the-reason causing massive housing/rent prices, but this has happened all over the world. (You can’t exactly afford much in Australia on minimum wage either, but the difference is people feel high and mighty about themselves by paying so much without actually solving the issue).
As for the homelessness, I remember when I was a young, naive, do-gooder complaining about the evils of American homelessness. I went and sat with many homeless people over the years and talked to them. You eventually figure out the reason they’re like they are.
Go try it yourself and see what you figure out.
Sounds like you are from a country where it’s common to make minimum wage. In the US it’s very uncommon to make minimum wage and very easy to make substantially more than that.
Minimum wage is almost comically low. Way below the poverty level.
Mental illness and drugs are a huge part of homelessness.