Homelessness in the United States

The word homeless typically does not bring to mind images of children and you but in reality, more than 100,000 and more children an experiencing homelessness have been identified by U.S. public schools every year since the 2015-16 school year. There so many homeless people living in the street in this world but for so many homeless student and school is the only stable place in their life. Despite being homeless, students spend as much time in class and on school topics as other non-homeless students. Many students need some kind of special care and attention to at least achieve the success in learning. Knowing every basic rules of working with such student, even the teacher can improve their chance to learn from the student. Being homeless and have to attended school could be hard because some kids would have something and the homeless won’t have something. Seeing some student homeless on the street it give other people bad feelings. Imagine student feeling lost and not even knowing what to do or where to sleep. There’s many problems that cause homelessness and most of that is cause by housing is unaffordable to the poor people and the other causes are include physical illness, mental illness

One of the root determinants of health and homelessness is poor childhood development. Even before children are born, social determinants of health can have a major impact on them through the mothers who are carrying the children (Davidson, 2015). The health and socioeconomic status of a mother can strongly influence

     To be homeless is to not have a home or a permanent place of residence. Nationwide, there is estimated to be 3.5 million people that are homeless, and roughly 1.35 million of them are children. It is shown that homeless rates, which are the number of sheltered beds in a city divided by the cities population, have tripled since the 1980’s (National Coalition for Homeless, 2014). Worldwide, it is estimated that 100 million children live and work on the streets. Homeless children are more at risk than anyone else, and are among the fastest growing age groups of homelessness. Single women with children represent the fastest growing group of homeless, accounting for about 40% of the people that are becoming

Homelessness in the United States can be ended, not just maintained. Allot of cities now have plans to eradicate homelessness. Homelessness and housing instability are large issues that afflict a diverse demographic such as: Families, youth, veterans, and chronically homeless single male adults. Ending homelessness may require specialized solutions that are specific to individual needs. Factors like these make defeating homelessness a difficult task. Although solutions exist for some of the demographics, such as housing for chronically homeless adults, scaling up best practices remains a challenge. For other subpopulations, such as transitional aged youth, evidence-based interventions need to be developed. In this paper we argue that ending homelessness is a Grand Challenge that is big, important, and compelling—one that the profession of social work should be adopt. Meeting this challenge will require a focused, organized response from social work researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. Ending homelessness will require innovation and interdisciplinary or cross-sector collaboration. Key words: Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing, rapid re-housing, prevention, poverty. The notion that homelessness in the United States can be ended, rather than managed (Mangano, 2002; National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2012), represents a fundamental shift in expectations from the 1980s and ’90s. Since the early 2000s, researchers, policymakers, advocates,

help others who are in any way, shape or form underprivileged; including the homeless. While,

Unemployment and lack of education plays a major role in these individual homeless people’s lives. With unemployment and high school dropout rates rising, homelessness cannot be prevented. Kids are taught from a young age to stay in school because the ones that dropout around high school is more than likely to become homeless. High school dropouts are likely to become homeless because they are likely to get kicked out of their dysfunctional home, or possibly run away from home feeling as if they are not good enough for the family. Dropouts will find it difficult to preserve a job, most will turn to drugs, becoming an addict, only hoping that it will make things better, really just increasing the rate of poverty and homelessness.

More than 269,000 California public school students don’t have a consistent place to call home at night. Most of these students range from preschool through 5th grade, and live in inadequate homes with friends or family, sleep in cars, or on the streets. Shockingly, only 15 percent of districts reported having no homeless students enrolled at their schools. Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego are some of the school districts that have the highest rates of homelessness in their student population. Brenda Dowdy, a liaison between the school and homeless students in San Bernardino County, recounts visiting a house that had 21 children and their parents staying in it, “There was no running water or a refrigerator. The kids had placed a mattress in a closet and treated it as if it were a room.”

As Americans, individuals take the small comforts of life for granted daily. The everyday individual overlooks a growing dilemma in the U.S., and goes home every night to the comfort of their family. The homeless population has increased over the years, and continues to grow by the day with the increase of the cost of living. Healthcare needs, and the availability of facilities to the under privileged is a major problem in the United States. Up to 610,000 individuals and families are living on the streets each and every night. All of these individuals are at a greater risk of contracting an illness simply because of their living situations, as well as not having the means to financially afford the cost of a doctor’s visit.

Cities across the United States are struggling with the matter of homeless people who congregate in public areas. Homeless people, some of whom have serious mental problems or addictions, cannot get into government-provided housing due to long waiting lists or incarceration records. They also may not have consistent access to soup kitchens or food pantries, because they are without transportation, or do not meet the agencies guidelines. As a result, the homeless congregate in public areas to panhandle for food and money. Non-profits or charities hand out meals in parks to help combat this issue. This can cause parks to become littered, leading them to be uninviting, which can diminish surrounding house values. In an endeavor to remove the homeless

Homeless families with children represent the fastest growing segment of the homeless population; in fact, they constitute about 40 percent of all people who are homeless (Stronge 7). In addition, the most recent estimate of homeless children and youngsters by the United States Department of Education is 744,000 (Stronge 7). These statistics are indeed quite frightening, and they go to show that children constitute a large part of the homeless dilemma. The part of that dilemma that seems most taxing is that of educating such homeless children. How can these kids become active members of society if they are unable to receive a proper public education, the same education that is provided for so many other kids under the Constitution?

Vulnerable families were hit hard by the recent recession and housing crisis. Rates of homelessness and housing instability among families with children increased during this period, and thousands of families in the United States remain without safe, stable, affordable housing (Cortes, Dunton, Henry, Rolston, & Khadduri, 2012). Families without adequate housing face barriers to multiple aspects of wellbeing including physical and mental health, educational and employment opportunities, family stability, and social engagement. Homelessness has proven to be harmful to children above and beyond the general conditions of poverty, and children without adequate, safe, stable housing experience negative outcomes across multiple domains of health and wellbeing.

People don’t stop to think about the care for the homeless children in Jackson County, but they really should. These children are born into homelessness and odds against their chances to make something of themselves; it is much harder to leave poverty than to enter it, and those children are pretty much helpless to escape. One out of ten children in Jackson County are homeless. The homeless children in Jackson County have many problems to face with getting proper medical care, having food to eat, a nice place to sleep, and getting an education. There are opportunities to fix the kids’ plights, however hard and far away these solutions seem and can be.

Imagine seeing a six-year-old child on the street with tears streaming from his immense, pitiful eyes hoping that one day he can attend school, live in a house, or even get a chance to play with toys. Children’s early experiences shape who they are and affect lifelong health and learning. However, a homeless child lacks opportunities such as safe and stable housing, nurturing and responsive parenting, as well as high-quality learning opportunities from home and school. Thus, it is clear that homelessness has negative developmental effects on a child mentally, socially, and academically.

Many children who are homeless struggle staying in school because they frequently move. As a result, it is hard for them to stay on grade level with their studies and build healthy relationships with their peers and teachers. Many families are not placed in shelters close to their children’s’ schools. While homeless children are legally permitted to attend their former school, the long commute is frequently too much of an inconvenience.

Children of many ages are affected by these tremendous problems resulting from homelessness that have just become greater as time has passed. Homelessness leaves long lasting scars on these children (Crary 2). “The burden places upon these people can influence every facet of their lives; from contraception to early adulthood” (Hart-Shegos 2). All stages of life are affected by this experience of homelessness and severe problems can be caused in every stage.