Ever drove or walked pass a homeless shelter and wondered how so many people got there? According to the American Aid Foundation, “Seven out of 10 Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless.” Getting a paycheck every two weeks does not mean a person cannot become homeless. Many would think only drug abuse and being poor are the reasons for homeless. There are many other ways to become homeless and for some people it becomes permanent. Many people that are homeless are single with kind, had/have welfare and do not have much work experience. The children are so youth that they develop emotional and mental problems. Drug and alcohol abuse become greater once people become homeless. With the proper assistance, all of that could be …show more content…
Finally they are 23% of those that are US Veterans that are also homeless. Veterans become homeless because of substance abuse, disabilities, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or lack of benefits. There are many different characteristics of people that are homeless.
Not everyone go through the same endeavors to become homeless. There is three main reasons people become homeless: poverty, unemployment and lack of affordable houses. Poverty is when there is not enough money for support. If people do not have enough money for their needs, they will need to do cutbacks. Once they start cutting back, they get behind on bills and either get evicted or have to foreclose. They are plenty of homeless individuals that are still employed. Yet they are homeless because they do not make enough to be financially stable. Even though some people may be unemployment, they should still have government programs to be stable. For example, they programs like Welfare reform, food stamps, unemployment checks, and housing assistance. These are programs made in order to support those with no jobs. With the many cutbacks on the budget that the government has, people cannot be stable enough on their own. With rents continuing to rise, there will be a greater deficit on affordable housing. According to Our Tired, Our Poor, Our Kids, “Two years ago the National Low Income Housing Coalition calculated that the hourly income necessary to afford the average
Homeless people are not always the victims that the media have portrayed them to be. The alarming fact is that many of the homeless are there by choice. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to portray all homeless people as lazy people who dont want to take care of themselves. This couldn't be further from the truth. In my experience with the homeless they are usually either in bad health, addicted to drugs, mentally ill or a combination of any of these. To compound matters worse, they are usually without any type of legitimate income to support themselves.
Sadly though, In the United States alone 549,928 people were homeless in January 2016 (“Snapshot of Homelessness”). Even though this number is so high a lot of cities do nothing about the homelessness in their area. One reason people do not help is they believe the homeless individual caused their issue. That is not always correct, though. The most frequent cause of homelessness is property destroying disasters (Griffiths 18). With housing being the main issue it makes sense Housing First would be the most successful. Another reason people are homeless is divorce and abusive relationship (Griffiths 18). Which again show housing programs would be beneficial. It makes people wonder why more states do not start housing
There are so many people homeless that it leads to poverty. Poverty plays a big role in homelessness, because it’s the simple fact that there are people out there struggling, starving, some even near death, and people have the nerve to say it’s a lifestyle, it is a unhealthy lifestyle, and I know that the middle class and wealthy high class citizens of America would never want to be in a homeless person’s shoes. Homelessness is in fact caused by depression, someone can just lose a loved one and completely lose all type of humanity. “ People living in poverty or close to the poverty line and everyday life issues that may be manageable for individuals with a higher income can be the final factor in placing them on the street”. ( Homaid 1).
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
I must say I agree with you. Homelessness is an epidemic in our country; and with the United States being one of the most advance nation in the world, it is unacceptable. What is even worse is that it seems as if our government is not doing anything to end homelessness. As you stated that they create shelters, but these shelters aren’t enough. People need a place where they can feel safe and secure and call home, and these shelters cannot offer this.
Social problems are those that raise a questionable suspense to issues that impact societies congruent to cultural normalization. The social issue researched will be homelessness and the impact along society. Homelessness is a social concern that raises issues for government officials, communities, and people along the community in so many ways. Every town or city is impacted by this liaison. In 2012 The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) calculated an estimate of at least 700,000 people enlisted as homeless in America. This has been an issue for centuries and is an everlasting effect that I feel will never change. What has to be accomplished, or better yet interpreted is, how communities can work together or come up
There is a misconception regarding people who are homeless. People assume that people are homeless because they are drug addicts, alcoholics or they are just lazy and don’t want to work to have the money to support having a place to live. There are actually many different reasons people are homeless. One of the most common factors aiding in people being homeless is poverty. There
Homelessness is a serious societal problem affecting our communities. Katel of Housing the Homeless says “about 1.5 million Americans use a shelter in a given year- and advocates for the homeless say that figure badly understates the problem.” Yet, society looks down at these people, not doing anything to help them. They are judged, criticized, and bombarded by false assumptions everywhere they go. I have heard people say “they are like that because they chose to” or “they are lazy and don't want to work.” This is not true in most cases. The reality is life can go wrong at any moment for anyone. For some people there is no one there to help them and their only option is living on the streets or a shelter.
Homeless people have been around us for a long time. It occurs when the family faces problems and leave each other with nothing on them. Disabled people often get rejected from social services and end up in the streets. Veterans get robbed by the government and end up on the streets too. Everyone dreams of living in a house someday and not living on the streets. The government should make rules that help and benefit homeless people. Sometimes kids, at a young age, leave their parents because they have a lot of conflicts going on around the house. Homeless people’s lives are hard. Homeless people apply to get the job but get rejected by the manager because they have nothing on them and because they are poor. Sometimes a person getting out of prison will have a hard time getting a job too. Let’s see how there are sociological perspectives and how they view homelessness.
Homelessness can happen to anyone, you can be the richest person in the world today and lose it all tomorrow and be out in the streets without knowing what to do. According to Greg Owen and Michelle Decker Gerrad, one of the reasons people are homeless in Minnesota is due to recession. They stated, “In the year 2000, when the U.S. economy was at a high point, nearly a quarter of all adults who were homeless in our state had full-time jobs. The 2012 survey shows us that only 8 percent of those who are homeless today have full-time jobs” this survey shows that not all homeless people are poor it’s just they cannot find affordable housing because of the economy. This is where the government comes in and a social worker needs to work with each
According to Streetwise of Street News Services (2010), the first reported instances of homelessness dates as far back as 1640, in some of the larger cities in the original 13 colonies. At this time, there were wars being fought between settlers and Native Americans, and people were left with no shelter in both sides (Street News Service, 2010). Later, the industrial revolution caused more homelessness, industrial accidents left many former hard-working families with a dead provider, or with severe disabilities, and then the economy entered a recession in the same time period (Street News Service, 2010). Wars always left a large number of veterans homeless. Later, in 1927, there was an astronomical flood along the Mississippi River,
Being homeless can be the least or one of the least desirable circumstances one could imagine, causing great difficulties to one more than one could imagine. People usually become homeless as results from a combined of different effects from of extreme poverty, the lack, and limited affordable housing and the decline of government supports, lack of employment opportunities, poor healthcare, and limited health services for mental illness, domestic violence, foreclosures, and evictions (Wikipedia, 2009, p. 6). These are just some of the major reasons that cause people to become homeless. But not all homeless are without jobs. There is a small percent of them do work, but the minimum wage is simply not enough to cover their rent since they are already struggling living paycheck to paycheck or the work is not steady. Forcing more and more not only single people but also entire families.
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
Often it is housing, that absorbs high proportion of income that can cause Americans to become homeless. Twelve million homeowners and renters pay more that fifty percent of their annual earnings for housing. This percentage is astonishing high for the county who has the best weapon system in the world. Although, several programs were developed such as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to stabilized homelessness, America should not have a large amount of homeless people, we should take care of our own people. According to National Coalition for the Homeless (“In a survey of 24 cities, people remain homeless an average of seven months, and 87% of cities reported that the length of time people are homeless has increased in recent years (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005)”). Seeing children and families living in shelters should not be permitted, in this great nation. Instead of interfering with other countries well being, America should focus on its own citizens. Investing in increasing developing affordable programs would prevent people from becoming homeless, and be in
Homelessness has always been a problem in major cities across the United States and even the world. This problem also affects out local community and even all of us individually. (Daily) A majority of the American people lives paycheck to paycheck, and according to statistics, we are only one or two paychecks away from becoming homeless. While there are many reasons a person or family can become homeless, a majority of those problems come from a lack of income. The job market of today is quickly dwindling and shows no signs of improvement. This market mixed with new government policies is becoming an issue for struggling American’s on the poverty line. Homelessness is becoming a vast problem