Article: The Forgotten History Of The Congressman Who Sacrificed His Life To Fight Homelessness

[Skidmore]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/03/03/3342851/great-american-sleepout-homelessness/

If the Obama administration succeeds in its goal of ending chronic homelessness in the United States, it can thank a group of activists who turned the course of history 27 years ago Monday, including a congressman who sacrificed his life for the cause. He and other supporters helped push through landmark legislation that addressed homelessness and was the only new social program enacted during the entire Reagan administration.

On the evening of March 3, 1987, a group of homeless advocates, Congressmen, and celebrities convened on the sidewalks near Capitol Hill to bear witness to the homelessness epidemic that had erupted across the country. Experts point to the 1980s as the genesis of modern homelessness, as cuts to low-income housing programs and changes like the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric hospitals led to a surge in the population of Americans experiencing homelessness.

Yet in 1987, there was no serious federal money to address homelessness. A federal response to the problem would have undermined President Reagan’s goal of rolling back America’s social safety net, after all.

But Rep. Stewart McKinney, a moderate Republican from Connecticut, knew that homelessness was an issue that Congress could no longer ignore. “He cared a great deal about the homeless,” Michael Stoops, director of community organizing at the National Coalition for the Homeless, told ThinkProgress. In fact, he was the first Republican on Capitol Hill willing to go public about a need for a federal initiative for the homeless.