Many of these homeless individuals may have had a pre existing substance abuse problem and became homeless because family members were no longer willing to enable self-destructive behavior. In a case like this, the individual essentially chooses to be homeless instead of obtaining assistance for his or her substance abuse issues. Another example of using critical thinking to understand the cause of an issue can be made by trying to understand mental illness among the homeless population. An inference can be made that mentally ill individuals become homeless as a result of his or her inability to provide a stable environment for his or herself. This is based on the assumption that mentally ill individuals
To be homeless is difficult to measure because so many different people have different opinions on what it means to be homeless. To overcome homelessness we must tackle the root causes, of course provide them a stable living environment, but also have systems in place to treat why people are homeless be it medical, employment, disaster. We
But is it really so? Even after you give them “a shelter from the elements, or three square meals a day, or a mailing address” too, it doesn’t make them have a home. They still stay homeless, because the definition of the word is taken wrong by people like us. Anna Quindlen goes into the depth of definition of the phrase “being homeless”. A “home is where your heart is”, and giving one a place to live doesn’t give him a place which is only his and his everything.
A substantial percentage of the U.S. homeless population are individuals who are chronically unemployed or have difficulty managing their lives effectively due to prolonged and severe drug and/or alcohol abuse. Substance abuse can cause homelessness from behavioral patterns associated with addiction that alienate an addicted individual's family and friends who could otherwise provide support during difficult economic times.Major reasons and causes for homelessness as documented by many reports and studies include: Poverty, caused by many factors including unemployment/underemployment. Lack of accessible health care. People who have some kind of chronic and weakening disease but cannot get health care either because they don't have money to afford it or because they are simply too weak to go and work every day.The basic problem of homelessness is the need for personal shelter, warmth and safety. Other difficulties include: personal security, quiet, and privacy, especially for
Kuroshe Mahak August 5th, 2012 Steve Yarborough/Engl 201 Two views on Homelessness The REAL Homeless There are as many as 2.3 to 3.5 million people who experience homelessness, this was from an estimate in 2009 by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty (Facts and Figures). This number is on the rise, but now is in a steady plateau. I have noticed that more and more people are becoming homeless and this number needs to level out, but it does not seem like it will. The essay “Untouchables” by Jonathan Kozol speaks of the type of homeless people who are there because of inconvenient circumstance, or a set of “emergencies” that all happen at the same time. This set of emergencies causes the person to go into such a situation where
There are many social problems that are associated with homelessness in Pinellas County. Financial problems such as: job loss, not making enough money and not being to afford rent/mortgage is related to the homelessness in Pinellas County (PIT, 2011). Criminal behavior is another social problem related to homelessness. According to Chamard (2010) persons who are homeless involves themselves in criminal activity for survival such as stealing, panhandling and peddling. The criminal activity stems from the homeless person basic needs not being met such as: shelter, food and clothes (Charmard, 2010).
They help some of the UK's most disadvantaged people. For older people, reasons for being homeless vary enormously, 37% - Parents, family, or friends no longer willing or able to accommodate, 20% - Loss of private dwelling, including tied accommodation, 19% - Breakdown of relationship with partner, 4% - Mortgage arrears, 2% - Rent arrears and 18% - for other reasons. Homelessness is not just about the people that the public sees and thinks about – principally “rough sleepers” living on the streets – but the whole range of people who lack a home. Homeless young people face a range of complex problems. For example, in 2012 more than 40% were not in education, employment or training.
Different studies have, however, depicted that socio economic status is one of the socio demographic characteristic influencing perception of patients (homeless patient) among physicians (Crowe, 2012). This raises the question of whether attitudes toward the homeless are affected by the level of socio economic status. Additionally, does the socio-economic status influence how the students of CSULB view the homeless? There is a wide body of research dedicated to investigating the predictors of negative behaviour and attitude toward the homeless among the American youth, but most of this research result to various discrepancies and divergence in results. For example, Jugan (2007) argues that lower socio-economic groups generally tend to have more generous ideals toward the homeless, and the problem of homelessness.
Being out of home can have many implications to a persons health. As they are vulnerable and often may not have the resources to provide food or shelter for themselves they are leaving themselves open to a lot of preventable infections and diseases, be it a common flu or HIV. (http://www.focusireland.ie/files/docs/effects%20-%20link.pdf) This high level of vulnerability could result in early onset of death and high mortality rates. Crisis believe that “Homeless people die younger. The average age of death of those recorded as homeless on corners varies between 42 and 53 years.” (Crisis,
According surveys, I think high unemployment rate and low employment rate, mental illness and domestic violence can cause people becoming homeless in America. Poverty is closely linked to homeless. Poverty due to high employment rate and low employment rate can trap individuals and can lead to homelessness. Although the United States is recovering from the worst financial crisis in 2008 since the Great Depression, there are still many homeless people suffering from the crisis. Many homeless people who have jobs and can't avoid homelessness, escaping homelessness is virtually impossible for those without a job.