ARGUMENTATION-PERSUAISON ESSAY “HOMELESS IN AMERICA” CHRIS RIECH SOUTH UNIVERSITY ONLINE “HOMELESS IN AMERICA” The reason people are homeless in America today is due to the lack of support from out government. Economic problems such as being laid off work or the rise in the cost of housing have lead people to live on the streets. They have no family to help them and they are left with no other choice. People with mental illnesses and addictions also become homeless quite often. A lack of affordable housing has contributed to homelessness.
“Homelessness in America” Sharon Rhodes South University Homelessness in America What do you think when you hear the word, “homelessness?” Did you picture a person “who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” or whose primary nighttime residence is a “supervised publicly or privately operated shelter” that provides a temporary living space (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2011)? According to Solutions for America (2011), there are anywhere between 500,000 to 600,000 homeless people in the United States at any point in time. It is difficult to get an exact count. PBS’s Facts and Figures: Homeless Program (2011), one study reports that in a given year in the United States, there are between 2.3 and 3.5 million people who are homeless at one time or another. With the current recession, it is a very real possibility that more than 1.5 million will be forced into homelessness in the next two years alone (PBS: Public Broadcasting Services, 2011).
Foreclosures have hit an all time high, and unfortunately some people were allowed to finance beyond their means and now have become homeless too. According to The National Coalition for the Homeless, “Housing assistance can make the difference between stable housing, precarious housing, or no housing at all. However, the demand for assisted housing clearly exceeds the supply: only about one-third of poor renter households receive a housing subsidy from the federal, state, or a local government. The limited level of housing assistance Campbell - 2 means that most poor families and individuals seeking housing assistance are placed on long waiting lists.” Not being able to afford housing does not mean that they are completely without a source of income. Many people that become homeless have jobs;
It’s not just people that are homeless, no food or clothing. Poverty can be describes in many different ways. People who may not be able to make their bills each month are in poverty. People who just have financial difficulty once a year are in poverty. People who have material problems that don’t have medical insurance, so they cannot go to the doctor are in poverty.
Vulnerable Population University of Phoenix Health Assessment and Promotion for Vulnerable Population NUR 440 Abstract According to Fitzpatrick-Lewis, Ganann, and Krishnaratne (2011) “Being homeless negatively impacts health as people who are homeless or marginally housed have less access to healthcare and poorer health outcomes than those living in stable condition” (p. 2). In America, people are becoming homeless for a variety of reasons. Some homeless people have addiction problems, some are illiterate, mentally ill, and they are veterans as well. On the other hand, others have experienced a string of bad luck and joblessness. At the end of the day, having no roof over their head is a hard reality that homeless people faced.
Another big cause of homelessness is people not having health care. They could have a job, but not given the benefit of free health care, so therefore if a poor family or individual were to be seriously ill they would not have enough money to pay for their health as well as to have a home. A high percentage of homeless people also are known to have a mental illness which could make it difficult to even impossible for them to get a job. As many as 3.5 million people in the United States has been reported of experiencing homelessness in a given year, even though most were temporarily. Some statistics of reported homeless Americans show 40% are families with children—the fastest growing segment, 41% are single males, 14% are single females, 5% are minors unaccompanied by adults, 49%
Cities often find themselves unable to sustain the shelter needs of the homeless population, primarily due to financial constraints. City management tries to implement policies best for traditional and homeless residents, but it is difficult to achieve a mix that accommodates both. Cities usually offer some form of shelters. However, availabilities are temporary and not guaranteed. Often city policies are against loitering, panhandling, sleeping in public or in cars.
There are an estimated 1.6 to 2.8 million homeless youth between the ages of 12 and 24 in the United States. Most youth homelessness is caused by abuse, neglect, and family conflict, deficient school systems that perpetuate illiteracy, joblessness, and addiction, lack of government housing and lack of affordable housing. These are not the only reasons why people are homeless, but they are the most obvious ones. Homelessness is viewed as a sociological problem, meaning that it is an issue that the society has to deal with by developing some kind of social institution and set of social practices like allocation of resources, and the allocation of status. It is understood that life is rough and sometimes things do not work out, but this country
According to a study by the U.S. Department of housing and Urban Development (HUD), there were 671,888 homeless people in the United States as of January 2007, including sheltered and unsheltered population. HUD defines homelessness as lacking a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. The number of homeless fluctuates with the health of the economy (2011). Homelessness raises the susceptibility to disaster events. Some of the barriers that may prevent these groups from obtaining needed services are: The lack of health insurance, a home, financial problem, mental illness and physical inability to do for themselves.
The information collected provides a snapshot of unduplicated sheltered and unsheltered individuals and families experiencing homelessness as defined by HUD. On Wednesday, January 27th the Homeless Prevention Coalition of Guilford County conducted Guilford County’s Annual Point in Time Count. The survey included only individuals willing to answer questions about their living status within a single 24 hour time period, every individual or family experiencing homelessness are not included as some refuse to participate, avoid the survey, or are not found within the 24 hour time period. The 2010 Point in Time Count reveals that 1,064 individuals experience homelessness on any given night and 131 of those individuals are experiencing chronic homelessness. This year snap shot shows an increase in homeless veterans, domestic violence victims, and homeless children, with a 55% increase in the number of Veterans living on the street or in emergency shelters, a 31% increase in the number of domestic violence victims who are experiencing homelessness (with 40% of those victims being male), and an 8% rise in the number of homeless children.