Due to the weak economy and high unemployment rates, homelessness is increasing at an alarming rate. The problem of homelessness is worse in some areas of the United States than in others due to drastically decreasing incomes, jobs that are no longer very secure and offer fewer benefits to the worker and his family. The United States is experiencing its worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Required hourly wages have improved by only one-sixth since 2007 for employees in manufacturing work. Workers were granted a reduction in working hours and a decrease in weekly earnings. As wage growth declines and consumption growth rises, economic recovery becomes increasingly out of reach. The effects of the recession are not discriminatory, everyone residing in the United States is affected in some way, including people who are able to continue working. In 1967, workers earning the minimum wage year-round were paid just enough to raise a family of three above the poverty level. From 1981 to 1990 the cost of living increased by 48% while the minimum wage remained at $3.35 an hour. In 1996, Congress raised the minimum wage to $5.15 an hour. For the next eleven years, the minimum wage remained at this rate of $5.15 an hour. Then, in 2007, President Bush signed a law that would raise the minimum wage to $7.25 over two years. This increase has failed to keep pace with the loss of equilibrium in inflation over the past twenty years. The actual value of the minimum wage is 26% lower than it was in 1979, which itself amounts to just $4.42 in real dollars. In our current economy a full-time worker works 40 hours a week. There are 52 weeks in a year totaling $13,624. This is below the… middle of the paper… social programs and giving money to build affordable housing. We as people need to give as much as possible. Give and give because it will benefit you in the long run. If we all pitch in and help, we can reverse this crisis and dramatically reduce homelessness. quality of life-homelessness-and-poverty-experts-blame-economy-lack-of-affordable-housing/article/126356www.content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2090997,00. htmlwww.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/us/since-recession-more-young-americans-are-homeless.htmlwww.rooflines.org/3003/blame_politicians_for_homelessness_and_hunger_in_us/www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/economy- byte-effect of state and local budget cuts on homelessness