This article goes back and forth in many different aspects as to what and who are considered to be poor. According to actual people their examples of poverty would be a homeless person who has no food or clothing. The government describes poverty to be an American that does have a car, stove, clothes, and televisions, mostly material items. Who is really considered to be poverty stricken? Most households that are poor experience one of these problems: The house is overcrowded, not being able to get medical care, or not being able to eat.
I have a few theories as to why homeless people are so despised and why we should not discriminate them. For numerous people, the first thing that comes to mind when they think of homeless people are panhandlers. Most people tend to place beggars and non-beggars in the same category giving the great majority a bad name. Only a very small percentage of homeless people beg. For instance, on any given day in downtown Chicago you can find about fifteen to thirty people begging for change on the sidewalks.
“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).
Excessive waiting lists for public housing mean that people must remain in shelters or inadequate housing arrangements longer. For instance, in the mid-1990s in New York, families stayed in a shelter an average of five months before moving on to permanent housing. 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). Longer stays in homeless shelters results in less shelter space available for other homeless people, who must find shelter elsewhere or live on the streets. Media reports of a growing economy and low unemployment mask a number of important reasons why homelessness persists, and, in some areas of the country, is worsening.
Some will give them money and some will act as if they do not see or even hear them. The reason why people do that is physiological. They do not believe that these people are homeless and really need the money for food and such. They think that people who appear to be homeless or those on the street asking for handouts are just going to use the money for drugs and alcohol. In addition, some people do give them money because they think it’s the right thing to do.
Then you have the homeless people who don't receive medical treatment, and end up with long term diseases, that need long term care. Alot of homeless people feel the prisons, and jails, which is very costly to the tax payer. There are laws that target the homeless such as, loitering, sleeping in cars, and begging, which make it easy for them to end up behind bars. A study done by The University of Texas, shows that a homeless person staying in jail for a year cost 14,480 and a one year prison stay would cost about 20,000. It is actually shown that providing these homeless citizens with permanent housing would save more money and be more cost effective.
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%
Causes of Homelessness in America Tonight, across America, as many as 3.5 million people will not have a safe place to go to sleep (“The Homeless”). These people will be sleeping out in the cold, on a park bench or in the gutter. The lucky ones may be sleeping in a shelter tonight, although these shelters are sometimes even more dangerous because they are frequently over-crowded and understaffed (St. John). But the real question is, in a land of plenty, where the typical family has more televisions than family members (“Average Home”) and an average of two cars (“Highlights”), why are there so many citizens on the street, struggling to survive from day to day? How are so many people, fellow human beings, sleeping on sidewalks, begging for spare change, and digging through garbage cans just to find food to eat?
Homelessness is defined as “having no home or permanent place of residence” according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Homelessness is a problem that millions of American’s face each year including, families, children, veterans, mentally ill, and the elderly. Homelessness can be classified as transitional, episodic, or chronic. Transitional homelessness is temporary, and people are able to obtain housing after rendering services. Episodic homelessness refers to persons that have recurring housing problems.
Running Head: Homelessness Homelessness Porsha Taylor GE265 Wed Mornings Homelessness Homelessness is extreme poverty in U.S society. My opinion is that our society sees it from a Moral Relativism point, which I believe it shouldn’t be seen from. I identify myself as Moral Pluralism. On any given night in America, anywhere from 700,000 to 2 million people are homeless, according to estimates of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty. A count in January, 2007, found 745 homeless people in Lucas County, with 200 of those classified as "chronically" homeless, according to HUD data.