How To Bounce Back From Homelessness

Brad Pitt sported some new celebrity arm candy on March 16 when he attended the groundbreaking ceremony for Make It Right, the actor’s foundation to build new homes to combat homelessness in the lower Ninth Ward in New Orleans, La. The 44-year-old star left Angelina Jolie at home, and was instead joined by former president Bill Clinton.

“We hope to see a huge change here in the next six months,” Pitt said. The Lower Ninth Ward is also the site of the Clinton Global Initiative University, a three-day series of workshops directed at college students to help devise solutions to global problems.

Almost three years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ homeless rate has surged to one in 25, nearly double what it was before the hurricane. But it doesn’t only take one of the greatest natural disasters in U.S. history for people to lose their homes. From the subprime mortgage crisis to the imminent recession, anyone can lose their home unexpectedly. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, each year between around 3.5 million people experience homelessness, and that number includes such celebrities as Jim Carrey, Daniel Craig, and Halle Berry, all of whom lived for some time without a place they could call home.

For homeless individuals with access to a housing subsidy, studies show they are 21 times more likely to remain stably housed. But being eligible for a subsidy—public housing agencies must provide 75 % of vouchers to applicants whose incomes do not exceed 30% of the area’s median—does not guarantee support. There are millions of eligible low-income families that are denied subsidies due to lack of funding.