The Global Roots of Homelessness

If I asked you to guess the number one cause of homelessness in the world, what would you say?

Unemployment? It makes sense when people lose their jobs, financial situations can spiral out of control, resulting in homelessness. Mortgage and rent payments are missed and utility bills are sacrificed in order to purchase food and other tangible needs. So, it has to be unemployment, right?

Nope.

Medical bills? America can be a scary country for someone who is sick or needs intensive or continuous medical care. Prolonged health problems or unexpected illness can lead to a monetary quagmire that surely indicates this is the leading cause of global homelessness!

Sorry, wrong again.

Domestic violence? There are many reasons people become violent and none of them justify hurting others. Thousands of people (mainly women) are forced to literally run for their lives every year because they are in an abusive relationship. Often, there is no place for them to go so they end up in rescue shelters. It seems this might be the correct answer.

No.

The number one cause of homelessness in the world is glaringly obvious yet something people rarely guess. It occurs almost continuously around the globe but we rarely consider the logical conclusion of it because it is such a multilayered issue. This issue is perpetually in the news but usually not covered in the context of homelessness. The thing that renders more people homeless than any other cause in the world is war. If you take a second and think about this it makes sense even though it is usually not a person's first (or even top 5) answer.

Wars have been raging on planet Earth since the first man hit his buddy over the head with a club and forced him to leave the cave. And while the evolution of war has become more mechanized and sinister as the centuries unfolded, the basic equation has not changed: Specific ideas + violent conflict + aggression + hostilities based on just about anything = displaced people who have become collateral damage.

When we examine wars, the participants and issues are scrutinized by politicians, military personnel, as well as civilians. We watch as events unfurl on CNN and we have become desensitized to what is really actually happening on the ground, in real time. We are involved in between commercial breaks and taking trips to the grocery store or changing the baby's diaper. I think most of us lament when things get bad enough to cause war, but we fail to think about the hundreds of thousands of people who become homeless every year around the world because of it.

Sometimes its good to look around and remember that homelessness is not just an American problem.