A problem on home front US can do without

Visiting the United States for the first time in 1993, I was deeply impressed by how rich, vibrant and advanced the country was. At the same time, I was appalled by the huge army of homeless people on the streets of the big cities such as New York, Washington, San Francisco and even Honolulu.

I spent a year in Honolulu, where I was told that some states actually sent their homeless to Hawaii so that they wouldn't freeze to death in winter, something I still find difficult to believe and have not been able to verify.

However, 22 years on there can be no doubting the population of the homeless in the US is huge, ranging from half a million to more than 3 million depending on the source of data. In New York City, widely regarded as the greatest American city, it has swollen to a staggering 60,000, nearing the city's record. In fact, two of the city's top officials in charge of homelessness affairs resigned recently due to the slow progress on this front. That there is a Department of Homeless Services in New York shows the severity of the chronic societal problem.