Gen Z and Millennials Struggling from Homelessness Due to Receive $1,400 Cash Under New Bill

This proposal is designed to assist these young people in overcoming homelessness by providing them with $1,400 each month over three years.

The situation is worsening, as evidenced by a 17% increase in homelessness among 18 to 24-year-olds between 2022 and 2023. 

Her statement, “We can’t keep repeating the same policy approaches that haven’t ended the youth homelessness crisis,” demonstrates the initiative’s goal to bring about meaningful change in the lives of vulnerable young Americans.

By offering this substantial financial assistance, the bill seeks to address the immediate housing needs of many young Americans.

This strategy aims to gather insights on the effectiveness of direct financial assistance in curbing homelessness. 

Such assistance decreases the need for shelters and empowers individuals to tackle their specific challenges autonomously. Recipients from prior cash assistance initiatives have reported transformative effects on their lives, the Detroit Metro Times reports.

Ann Arbor’s innovative step sets a precedent in the U.S., where cash assistance studies are not widespread. Through her proposed legislation, Representative Tlaib aims to extend this concept.

This nationwide approach signifies the program’s ambitious aim to tackle youth homelessness across the country.

The legislation is devised with inputs from those it aims to benefit, ensuring that the proposed measures are grounded in the real-life experiences and needs of young individuals facing homelessness.

Parker said “our current system fails to address known root causes, and instead, substitutes prisons and jails for actual policies that address the confluence of indigency and egregiously high housing costs in this country. This bill represents a long overdue shift away from the flawed carceral approach towards a more just city.”

She emphasizes the organization’s commitment to using lived experiences to shape advocacy efforts, aiming to prevent hardship and provide stability and empowerment. “Our shared ambition is to proactively prevent the hardships faced by our most vulnerable youth, while simultaneously offering them the essential ingredients of stability, empowerment, and a promising future,” Middleton stated.

This approach ensures that the proposed solutions are directly informed by the experiences and challenges of those they aim to help.

The NN4Y estimates that 90% of youth in youth homeless shelters report experiencing difficulties at home that can include things like regular fighting or screaming.

Statista estimated that in 2023, over 51 percent of the wealth in the country is held by the baby boomer generation. The baby boomers are anyone born between 1946 and 1964, meaning the youngest baby boomer is around 60 years old.

According to Statista, people who were born after 1981 only control 9.3 percent of the wealth in the United States. This wealth gap is felt across all spectrums of the economy, with younger people having more trouble than the older generations affording basic necessities like groceries, housing, and college.

According to College Board, the average amount of loan debt for students in the 2021 to 2022 school year was $29,400 for recipients of bachelor’s degrees.

Some reports estimate that a young 22-year-old American fresh out of college has a 50 percent chance of being underemployed. This means they are in a job that is not what they went to school for.

At the end of 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a housing package of nearly 56 different bills aimed at making housing more affordable in the state. The move would help speed up the production of new houses to keep up with property demand and allow certain organizations like colleges to use portions of their property to help house residents. 

“It’s simple math – California needs to build more housing and ensure the housing we have is affordable. In partnership with the Legislature, we have advanced billions of dollars to that end. These 56 bills build on that work, supporting tenants and ensuring cities are held accountable to plan for and permit their fair share of housing,” Newsom said.

The Economic Policy Insitute estimates that middle-wage workers had a totally flat or declining salary in nearly every decade since 1980. This phenomenon has undoubtedly contributed to America’s homelessness problem.

Despite the growth in the productivity of the average worker, their pay has not kept up. Since 1973, worker productivity has been spiking while hourly compensation has a noticeably flatter increase.

This growing separation of wealth between people has led to many Americans being unable to afford basic necessities, much less a suitable shelter over their heads.

Many people are confused as to why CEOs are paid so much, but the job comes with a lot of responsibility and pressure. Good CEOs are hard to find and big companies are willing to shell out big dollars just to have someone with a proven track record piloting the ship.

The solution to the problem will likely require efforts from local governments to provide the necessary resources to combat the factors contributing to homelessness. Also, as long as inequality keeps growing in America, it’s hard to imagine a long-term solution.