Homelessness

1999-2023 | 24 years

In Excelsis Deo is one of the many amazing Christmas episodes of the series, with the episode winning an Emmy and Richard Schiff, who plays Toby Ziegler, winning an Emmy for this episode as well. In the episode, a homeless Korean War Veteran dies wearing a coat that Toby gave to the Goodwill with his business card in its pocket. After learning about this, Toby searches for somebody who would know him and goes on to get the homeless Veteran a military funeral at Arlington National Cemetary.

Homelessness has continued to increase n recent years, and it seems that the problem is not going away anytime soon. Within the past year, I have visited San Antonio, San Francisco, New York, and Washington D.C.. Homelessness in these big cities was a very apparent problem. Unfortunately, we haven’t yet solved this complex problem.

One of the biggest issues that contribute to homelessness is a shortage of housing. The less housing there is, the more demand there is for it, and the more people are willing to pay for it. Therefore, prices increase, contributing to people being unable to afford housing, and causing many of them to be homeless. The simple answer would be to build more affordable housing, but often times those who try to implement this solution come to roadblocks. Many oppose new affordable housing in their communities because they fear that it will bring crime to their neighborhoods or decrease the value of their own property. Also, many areas can’t have more housing added to them because they are zoned for single-family units. This single-family home is a staple of the American middle class, and those who live there often don’t want to see this changed. A significant portion of the homeless population also struggles with mental illness or substance abuse. Due to this fact, there are many campaigns to provide homeless people with services to help with these issues.

Often, the issues which cause homelessness are not fully addressed, and homeless people are simply moved from where they are due to complaints in the community. This often happens because people who live in areas where the homeless set up their encampments are not able to fully use their infrastructure or are put at risk by the homeless communities. I witnessed this phenomenon when doing a project for school. Homeless people were being moved out of a riverbed because citizens of the community were not able to feel safe while using their river trail, and the homeless people left large amounts of trash in the area. The homeless are also known in the area for accidentally starting fires, especially in the winter when they burn large bonfires. Communities often want to help the homeless, but it's hard to balance this with the needs of the residents of the community. Some people, however, believe that it is not the government’s place to intervene to help homeless people in situations in people like this. They believe homeless people are in a situation of their own making, and that they have the ability to pull themselves up by their bootstraps if they so chose. However, there are intricacies to the situation. For example, many who are homeless are veterans, as highlighted in the episode. Veterans often suffer problems due to their time serving their country which makes it hard for them to get jobs or support themselves. The episode highlights this tragedy of our country abandoning the people who served, willing to give their lives, for it. Actress Melissa Fitzgerald, who plays Carol in The West Wing, works to combat this problem as the Senior Director of the nonprofit organization Justice For Vets.

Homelessness is a very intricate problem, with lots of nuances and opinions on the issue, which makes it challenging to fix. But it’s hard not to watch this episode, and see the story of Walter, the Korean War vet who died in the cold at the Korean War Memorial, and think that we can do better.