Downtown San Diego Homeless Crisis

The purpose of this paper is to bring acknowledgement to the homeless population in Philadelphia. Research will be provided from scholarly journals as well as published, credible websites. We will explore the overall statistics in the United States but will have a focus on the city of Philadelphia. The homeless population is large and its evident there is an issue with housing and mental illnesses. While there are programs to assist, the homeless population outnumbers the resources available here in Philadelphia. This paper will explore the different types of people impacted such as families, youth, veterans and the elderly. This paper will explain and acknowledge that Philadelphia doesn’t provide enough support to assist the homeless. This paper will focus on the resources and support of local services and but also bring attention to the lack thereof.

Homelessness has always been a problem for the United States. Since its birth as a nation, there have consistently been individuals who find themselves without a place to live, looking for shelter with family, friends, or simply anywhere they can find it. These individuals have been targeted as candidates for social aid, but this was primarily provided by churches and other care organizations. However, in the past thirty years the homeless population has increased almost exponentially in numbers. While the cause of this is undetermined, it is quite certain that while the

California streets are overwhelmed day-to-day by the homeless population, yet city and county services are limited and the issue continues on. To address the problem of homelessness in California, city and county leaders have collaborated and proposed future plans across the region. The city council recently approved a plan that involves the creation of services and programs to those who are homeless, but realizes the budget for funding these plans are not available at hand. The effort to solve the homelessness problem is not within the plans of strategies; however funding these strategies is the solution to making these plans a reality. Focusing on the issue, the city and county leaders have different roles that each are responsible for and the funds needed for these plans exceeds over $1.85 billion over the next ten years and currently about $30 million is already spent on strategies to reduce the homeless population.

There are an estimated 2,981 homeless people in San Antonio each day. Out of these, 1,243 were unsheltered and a staggering 31% of those are people with families. In addition, the average age of a homeless child in San Antonio is 6 years old. An overall picture shows that homelessness has dropped nearly four percent from 2012 to 2013. Further, an average of 610,042 people are homeless across the United States on any given night. “Of that number, 36 percent – 222,197 people – were in families, representing a drop of 7 percent for that group” (Chappell, 2013, p. #). More than a third of these people were not found in shelters, abandoned buildings, cars, or under bridges. Although, there has been a small decline in homelessness,

Homelessness is an issue in American society today that affects anywhere from 800,000 to 3.5 million people. There are a substantial amount of people that are without shelter, food, or employment, and there are numerous other people affected by poverty and homelessness. People living in nearly every city in the United States are affected by homelessness due to the large amounts of homeless individuals living on the streets and begging for money, food, and other necessities. The issue of homelessness has been a constant problem since the conquering of the New World, and soup kitchens and homeless shelters have not been able to fully end homelessness. Especially today, with a lack of affordable housing and high unemployment rates, homelessness is prevalent.

The state of California has an enormous amount of homeless people. The homeless population consists of individuals that do not have housing, money, food, and even everyday necessities. Also, there are many homeless veterans in C.A. who previously served for the country. Homelessness is a major health concern and issue that affects a person’s physical, mental, and social well being. Since homelessness is a major issue in C.A. there are policies and programs to assist those in need.

Homelessness is a national epidemic that affects much of our society. “In Texas, there were 29,615 persons homeless in 2013, meaning that approximately 12 out of every 10,000 persons in Texas are homeless” (Homelessness 101). Homelessness is a problem that is everywhere and unseen by many. There are many community outreach programs, religious organizations, including government agencies that aid in the welfare of homeless. Why is it that homelessness still remains a unsolved

While the homeless population in the United States has declined over the past five years it is still much higher then it needs to be. Currently San Diego County has the fifth highest homeless population in the United States. The homeless population of San Diego County is mostly located in and around the downtown and beach areas of the county however it has started to spread into more areas of the county to include the San Diego River area of Santee. While there is a portion of the homeless population that choose to be homeless a large number of them are homeless due to falling on hard times. While it would be hard to get every homeless person off the streets there are something’s that can be done to help them. One way to solve this problem is to repurpose some of the currently vacant government building and unused county owned land throughout the county and convert them into homeless shelters. While this solution may reduce the homeless population we first need to look at who and why people are homeless in this country.

In the United States the homeless population continues to grow rapidly. Homelessness has been a public health issue for many decades. Often times these individuals feel as though society has turned a blind eye to them. This at risk population is seen by society as lazy or chose to live a life on the streets, but if one would examine this population closely would see that there is more to this at risk population than what society has labeled them as. The forces, which affect homelessness, are multifaceted. Social forces such as family breakdown, addictions, and mental illnesses are in combined with structural forces such as lack of low-cost housing, insufficient health services, and poor economic conditions. Many would

As Super Bowl season draws near, many of the homeless living in San Francisco are being encouraged to head away from the vicinity of the recently built Super Bowl City in San Francisco, California and move towards local homeless shelters nearby. Home to nearly 7,000 homeless people and growing, San Francisco is ranked 8th in the nation for its substantial homeless population city. According to “The 2014 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress”, “...Most (69 percent) [of the homeless living in the USA] were staying in residential programs for homeless people, and the rest (31 percent) were found in unsheltered locations.”(Henry, 5). However in San Francisco, “64 percent [of the current homeless population in San Francisco are] living outside of shelters”(Veckshin, 2). San Francisco cannot and should not just keep turning a blind eye on the men, women, and children harming their health by living on the streets.

People drive or walk past a homeless person almost every day without thinking twice about the plight of that person or they may even unconsciously turn their heads the other way in disgust. Homelessness simply put, means without a home - therefore homelessness is an equal opportunity state that can happen to anyone. Even though we have seen some economic prosperity over the years, statistics show that the number of homeless remains very high. With this in mind, communities need to come together at the state, city, and individual level to come up with solutions to mitigate the spreading of this problem.

      This is my third year living in San Francisco, I’ve been traveling to different cities and the homelessness is a serious issue that I concerned about. Especially the homeless problem in San Francisco is serious than other cities that I visited. According to the Data Shows San Francisco Has Second Highest Homeless Population in United States by Kristen Sze published on ABC7news, there are 795 people per 100,000 residents in San Francisco are homeless, and ranks to second to New York in homelessness.

When walking down the streets of Los Angeles, people will often encounter homelessness. Homelessness is currently considered a major problem in Los Angeles. Since 2013 homeless population in Los Angeles has increased by 12 percent. According to SCANPH (Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing), Los Angeles has the highest street homeless population in the nation. There are about 26,000 homeless people in the city of Los Angeles, and about 44,300 homeless people in the Los Angeles County; about 75 percent of these homeless are individuals, 17 percent are families, and 8 percent are minors. People can become homeless for different reasons, such as illnesses, domestic violence, physical disability, mental disability, and etc.

     Here in Tahoe, we are lucky enough to experience a great quality of life, and only a few have to face the horrible life of poverty and homelessness. However, nationwide, even right outside the basin, homelessness is a growing epidemic across the country. There are many ways one can become homeless; for the most part poverty. There are also different concentrations of homeless in different types of terrain, such as urban or suburban areas. Last, there is the ever- growing homeless population, and how much money it costs us for others to live in poverty. These are the questions we ask ourselves about homelessness, and the only way we can help is to know the facts about this lingering

A Bay Area native, San Francisco resident, and West Coast denizen, I have seen the effect of the homeless situation in all the major cities and suburbs. I am an ambitious, team player that lives for facts, deadlines, and clear communication.