That means removing obstacles to housing, including the gap between the minimum wage and the cost of decent accommodation, as well as establishing partnerships with homeless people, service and support groups, communities and local governments. Unfortunately, the private sector, which is so often a source of innovative solutions, has not shown any sustained interest in tackling the problem, which it does not see as part of its responsibility. Now, however, the private sector must somehow become involved in creating affordable housing, acknowledging that a healthy future for children depends on many things, housing among the most important of them. Failure to take those steps dooms countries to continuing crises of homelessness. In addition to emergency food, shelter and health care, it has financed help for young runaways, for initiatives designed to aid homeless people in making their way back into the housing market and for placing homeless children in school.
Homelessness interferes with the fulfilment of rights and with normal family life.
The children, ages 7 to 13, are not in school. Throughout the years, the Act, which came into force in 1987, has undoubtedly helped hundreds of thousands of Americans move out of the legions of the homeless. But the tendency to 'put out fires', to respond to symptoms of homelessness rather than treating its roots, means that the numbers continue to rise. Nonetheless, there are some reasons for cautious optimism. There are a number of industrialized countries, especially in Europe, that are ever more imaginative in seeking solutions.