'Home' for one person here in Albuquerque, NM, close to I 40.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (ANS) -- A United Nations special investigator has accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and big business while treating as “invisible” a deepening homeless crisis.

Writing for Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Chris McGreal reported that Raquel Rolnik, the UN special investigator for the right to adequate housing, who has just completed a seven-city tour of America, said it was shameful that a country as wealthy as the US was not spending more money on lifting its citizens out of homelessness and substandard, overcrowded housing.

According to her UN biography, Rolnik is an architect and urban planner, with more than 30 years experience in planning and urban land management. “She has a large experience in the implementation and evaluation of housing and urban policies.”

“The housing crisis is invisible for many in the US,” The Guardian reported she said. “I learned through this visit that real affordable housing and poverty is something that hasn't been dealt with as an issue. Even if we talk about the financial crisis and government stepping in in order to promote economic recovery, there is no such help for the homeless.”

The Guardian said she added, “I think those who are suffering the most in this whole situation are the very poor, the low-income population. The burden is disproportionately on them and it's of course disproportionately on African-Americans, on Latinos and immigrant communities, and on Native Americans.”

Rolnik toured Chicago, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Wilkes-Barre, a Pennsylvania town where this year the first four sheriff sales – public auctions of seized property – in the county included 598 foreclosed properties. She also visited a Native American reservation.

The Guardian reported homeless advocates say that more than 3 million people were homeless at some point over the past year. The fastest growing segment of the homeless population is families with children, often single parents. On any given night in Los Angeles, about 17,000 parents and children are homeless. In Albuquerque, New Mexico, about 5,000 children are reportedly homeless.

Los Angeles, which The Guardian said has been described as the homeless capital of America, has seen an 18-fold increase in housing foreclosures. Evictions from owned and rented homes have risen about tenfold, with 62,400 people forced out last year in Los Angeles county.

Welfare payments are not enough to meet the rent, let alone food and other necessities. A single person on welfare living in Los Angeles receives $221 a month – an amount that hasn't changed in a decade. The rent for one room is typically nearly double that.

The Guardian reported that Rolnik said while she saw difficult conditions in all the places she visited, the worst was on the Native American reservation of Pine Ridge in South Dakota.

“You see total hopelessness, despair, very bad conditions. Nothing I have seen in other cities compared to the physical condition of the housing at Pine Ridge. Nothing compared to the overcrowding. They're not visible, they're isolated, they're far away. They're just lost,” she said.

The Guardian reported Rolnik said that one of America’s greatest embarrassments is that the US has the resources to provide decent housing for everyone.

“In the US, it's feasible to provide adequate housing for all. You have a lot of money, a lot of dollars available. You have a lot of expertise. This is a perfect setting to really embrace housing as a human right,” she said.

The Guardian said Rolnik has given a verbal report to the US state department, which has a month to respond to her observations. She will submit a final written report to the UN human rights council early next year.

With 27 years experience of helping the homeless, I believe that while Rolnik has some good observations, she dramatically oversimplifies this very complex issue. It is unrealistic to expect the government “to provide adequate housing for all.”

People of faith in particular, and community members in general, have an equal, if not greater, obligation than the government to reach out to the needy in their communities. Let’s pray they begin to accept that responsibility.

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "Now You See Me." Additional details on some of Reynalds' previous books are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com. He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 400-7145.