Homelessness In America

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“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). Imagine, that number of people do not have a permanent and safe home in which to live. Why? Why do we have so many homeless in one of the wealthiest countries in the world? Clearly homelessness is a problem in America. The statistics show more and more people are sleeping in shelters or on the streets. Is homelessness a problem or the effect of another problem? Some might argue that there will always be homeless people because it is the result of the human condition and biases we have in our society. On the other hand, some would disagree and argue that the cause of homelessness is because the economy is bad. Every time the economy goes south, the cost of living remains the same or goes up. For example, when the economy is bad, a large number of people always lose their jobs. With job loss, there is always the threat of becoming homeless if they cannot find another job

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