Our guest blogger, Providence HS student Clay Sellers
Hello, my name is Clay Sellers. This year, I will be a senior at Providence High School in South Charlotte. As part of a senior exit project, I have teamed up with Community Link to blog about homelessness in an effort to increase my knowledge on minimum wage and its effects on our community. Over the next several weeks, I will be blogging updates as I learn new things during my journey.
Minimum wage causes millions of Americans to fight homelessness and suffer through it every single year. In 1938, minimum wage was formed in this country when Franklin Roosevelt passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. It used to be only 25 cents per hour, but today’s national standard is $7.25 per hour. Many argue that an increase in wage would hurt the overall status quo of the United States, but there are staggering facts that counter that idea. Such as an increase to $10.10 per hour would reduce spending in government aid programs by over 7.6 billion dollars per year, and that if the minimum wage had adjusted to inflation over the duration of its existence, it would currently be at $10.89 per hour. As the cost of living continues to increase, it puts a greater strain on homeless people that are living in our society. Over the past year or so, I have seen the firsthand effects of a low minimum wage.
I would say that prior to researching minimum wage, I had false knowledge about minimum wage and the people that are affected by it. I had originally though that most of them were lazy or were alcoholics, but I am happy to say that I was completely wrong. About a month ago, my youth group at Sardis Presbyterian Church took a mission trip to Washington D.C. to work with the homeless that live in our nation’s capital. We worked in many different homeless shelters and instead of just serving food, we were also able to have some amazing conversations with them. There were hardly any that we talked to issues with alcohol or drugs, and many of them were employed. For them, the greatest struggle was paying for the basic needs in Washington DC because it has recently become the most expensive city to live in in the United States. While Charlotte isn’t quite as expensive, at a recent meeting with Community Link, I learned of some great new things that our city is planning to do to help the homeless problem among veterans.
This year, our city has taken the Mayor’s Challenge to end homelessness among veterans by the end of 2015. Community Link and other leading organizations around Charlotte are making great strides in ending homelessness among veterans. Together they are currently close to completing a Veteran Registry in Charlotte that will identify all the homeless veterans in order to contact them and serve them in the best way possible. There has also been a loan proposal to Fifth/Third Bank and a proposal to donate kitchen sets and other essentials that our veterans would need at the beginning of their home ownership. They are also working to get pre-inspections on the houses in order to speed up the delay between finding a home for the veterans and actually getting them into the home with an initial payment. These actions among others are truly inspiring and should serve as an example for other cities around the United States.
I would like to take a second also to remind you to like the Community Link Facebook Page, as our goal is to hit 1,000 likes! We want to continue to spread the word about the Mayor’s Challenge in Charlotte and help our cause to gain support. I’ll be back soon with another blog!
Sincerely,
Clay Sellers