Military Spending: $600+ Billion / Homeless Assistance spending: $1.79 Billion

I don't think there is anything in the public sphere that outrages me more than the obscene and morally reprehensible difference between what we spend on the military and what we spend on affordable housing in this country.

My good friends over at the National Coalition for the Homeless drive home this point succinctly with a great fact sheet:

Military Spending vs. Affordable Housing and Veteran’s Affairs Spending

Published by the National Coalition for the Homeless, July 2009

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“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex.”
-Dwight D. Eisenhower, Farewell Address, Jan. 17, 1961The President’s Budget request for FY10 suggests giving the Department of Defense a budget of $533.7 billion.  The Budget includes funding to increase the size of both the Army and the Marine Corps by sustaining permanent forces. Additionally, there is a request for $130.0 billion in supplemental appropriations in order to draw troops away from Iraq and into Afghanistan (Department of Defense).
The amount that the government spends on the war compared to what it spends on affordable housing and taking care of its war veterans alarmingly show where the values of our nation lie. As we have seen from our history with the Vietnam War and the War on Poverty, armed conflict distracts our nation from the dire domestic problems.
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has a remarkably smaller budget compared to the Defense budget at request at $46.3 billion for FY 2010. Only $1.79 billion from the entire budget is devoted to “homeless assistance grants”. This amount might be able to alleviate homelessness in one state.
For the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, the President has a budget of $112.8 billion for FY 2010, increasing 15% from 2009.  The Department of Veterans Affairs also boasts that its homeless assistance programs constitute the largest integrated network of services in the United States.  Veterans’ Affairs budget allocates $3.222 billion to combating homelessness (Department of Veterans Affairs). The National Coalition for Homeless Veterans says that of the 400,000 homeless veterans on the street any given night, the Department of Veterans Affairs reaches only about 25% of them.
Obviously, the federal government has the resources to provide significant aid to homeless people but still lacks the will to end homelessness in America.


RESOURCES: Veterans’ Affairs. “VA 2010 Budget Fast Facts,” 2009. 1722 I Street N.W. Washington D.C., 20421.
National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. “Background & Statistics,” 2005. 333 ½ Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20003-1148.

That we spend something like 5 times what the next nearest country spends on their military - some $600 billion plus annually - while even one person in our country goes homeless, hungry and mired in ever-increasing poverty- should not only give pause to everyone who cares about their community, it should also rise to the level of a national discussion. Yet we rarely hear from those we "choose" to represent us in our government about this lopsided and frankly conscience-shocking comparison.

And when the issue is raised, rational voices expressing shock and dismay about this ratio are immediately drowned out by hawks and warmongers who claim those voices make America "weak" or that reducing the Defense budget will mean job losses.  Military spending props up a lot of cities and pours billions into local coffers, so it doesn't take a lot of brainpower to realize that politicians have a vested interest in not just maintaining the status quo. but increasing military spending whenever and wherever it is possible.

My answer is simple, really, but of course will be screamed down by those who think gunbarrel dipomacy is effective and that "everyone wants to live like an American": cut the military budget in half and use that money in one of two ways - either pay down the National Debt, or use the money to raise the minimum wage, provide subsidies to small businesses that hire people with "living"-wage rates based on the cities they're in rather than a "minimum" wage, and invest in improvements in education and workforce development across the board for the American people.   

We won't end homelessness simply by providing additional housing.  We've got to assist people in learning how to be successful contributors within our communities.  We do that by paying a person a livable wage, ensuring they have the education and skills to function in a technologically sophisticated environment, and we need to ensure they have at their disposal all the tools they will need to become successful in that process.

Until we begin addressing the systemic issues facing our country, reassess our priorities, and make some fundamental shifts about the way we support our own people, I'm afraid all of our efforts at ending homelessness, reducing poverty, and providing people with a real opportunity to live an "American Dream" will simply be like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic for the best views of the iceberg.