Dissolving Boundaries Through Sustainable Returns

The moment I entered Starbucks’ restroom, I bumped into a lady in her mid-60s, characterized by a shriveled face and visibly decaying teeth. She was carrying a bag overfilled with medicine and her threadbare clothing brought out the scars on her hands and legs.

As she began groaning in pain, I sprinted to get her crutch. We began talking, and I discovered that she was living with a few others near the Garage.

Eight years ago, she had been deserted by her family and had boarded a bus from Houston to a homeless veteran facility in Connecticut where she received medical treatment for a second-stage renal disease. But three years later she found herself abandoned by the facility for failing to pay rent. The facility also chose to retain her Social Security and other identity documents. From the facility, she had a found a way to Boston and now lived on the streets. Due to her continued health condition, she had to pass bowels several times during the day and night, when it was freezing cold and most painful.

Moved by her condition, I looked up the nearest veteran facilities for homeless elderly people and came across an entire database of specialized veteran-centric services for those who qualified as mentally or physically handicapped. But all of them required enrollees to pay an annual rent of 30 percent of their annual income. Even the Harvard Square Homeless Shelter requires that short term and extended stay beds be for sober men and women. Extended stay beds are assigned by lottery and are typically reserved for people who are working.

Being an international student in Massachusetts had little helped me to understand the maladies of the homeless American. But in the case of veterans such as the old lady, it wasn’t hard to tell that unemployment as a result of old age was not the only factor contributing to her homelessness. Lack of family and social support accompanied by various health complications including hearing and speech impairment, dental problems, loss of vision, chronic illnesses, and an end-stage disease had landed her in a cycle of debt.

Despite being largely informed about programs available to her, the lady had fallen victim to an enrollment policy leading to detention of her Social Security and identity documents. This is problematic because, in many cases, homeless individuals need documents to prove their disability and receive benefits or assistance.

Documentation is not the only obstacle, however. For this woman, health care was highly needed and highly inaccessible. A report by the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation, for example, documents the incredible challenges of the Medicaid enrollment process, including language barriers, low literacy levels, absence of stable contact information, and documentation. Poor health conditions further hinder understanding and completion of the application. And a lack of reliable transportation contributes to delays or denials of applications. Therefore, despite the presence of widespread private and public insurance schemes, a large number of Americans remained uninsured.

Federal government-administered national social insurance programs pose a similar problem for healthcare. Programs like Medicare and Medicaid, for example, require the citizen to have paid into the system through payroll taxes or shared costs. These programs are also part of the health insurance problem as they generally cover only about half of health care charges, leaving the rest to be covered through supplemental insurance or out-of-pocket.

In order to solve the problems of our healthcare system and begin to tackle the plight of homelessness, we must push for more comprehensive solutions. Investing in organizations, institutions, and funds with the intention of generating social and environmental impact alongside a financial return (termed as impact investing) should be looked to as a sustainable and far-reaching solution.

Homelessness does not directly affect us all, but it is necessary to understand that homelessness is not a choice but a social problem. Currently, 564,708 Americans are homeless and 1.4 million are on the verge of homelessness. These people are members of our own community, living off the streets in extreme weather conditions―individuals who are or once were someone’s father, mother, wife, or child. We may be blessed with a strong support system in times of need, but not everyone is so fortunate. It is therefore vital that we extend such support and services to those lacking them.

It is our responsibility to provide more funds and create an ecosystem of services that continuously seeks to contributes to the stability of the homeless and almost homeless. Because everyone―rich or poor, old or young, differently abled or unemployed―has the right to have a safe, dignified, and secure life.

Komal Parakh is a visiting student taking graduate courses with the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and concentrating in the area of economic entrepreneurship.