Around August of 2007, banks become afraid to loan money out due to the fact that they did not want to suffer from losing money yet again. “This led to the $700 billion bailout, and bankruptcies or government nationalization of Bear Stearns, AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac Bank, and Washington Mutual. By December 2008, employment was declining faster than in the 2001 recession.”(useconomy.com). With so many foreclosures on houses, many americans were either homeless, or had bought a cheap apartment to keep them from being homeless. Because of the recession, and bad economic, many Americans have no jobs, and barely have a house.
Joblessness and persistent unemployment continues to drive the poverty rate higher. The economic damage extends to the broader workforce and the country in general, through lost wages, income and wealth, as well as higher poverty. The national unemployment rate is currently 9.1%, and it has been at or above 8.8% for the past 28 months. The underemployment rate has remained between 15.7% and 17.4% since the spring of 2009, and it currently stands at 16.1% (Mishel). Because of the current state the economy is in, it has been difficult for people to earn a decent paycheck or even sometimes find a job to support their families.
Declining wages have put affordable housing out of reach for many. As bad as it is for the 13% of homeless people (NCH 2007) who have jobs and can't escape homelessness, climbing out of homelessness is virtually impossible for those without a job. Many homeless people cannot find jobs due to not having an address or a contact number. They are turned down at interviews because of their unclean appearances because they cannot shower or clean their clothing. Although the wages seem to be increasing the amount of time in which the minimum wage did not keep up with the cost of living was lengthy and the economy is still struggling to catch up.
One of the leading causes across the board is lack of affordable housing. As housing costs continue to rise the minimum wage and low paying jobs are not sufficient to support a family on one income so without two incomes to meet the higher cost families end up displaced. There are many Americans who are one paycheck from homeless (Berman, 2015), many others have to choose whether they will eat or pay rent. Is society responsible? How does this come to happen in a society where we are considered rich and privileged among nations of the
There are many causes to the rise in homelessness, and the way they are overlooked, or brushed aside. Most homeless people are down on their luck, temporarily, because of circumstances beyond their control. Anyone could be faced with these sorts of circumstances and become homeless at any time. One cause is the recent downturn in the economy. Jobs are scarce and homes are expensive.
Poverty is the most visible consequences of homelessness (Newman, 2012). Current economy recession and poor employment opportunities people loss their job. It leads to foreclosure of house’s and problem in maintaining households for reasons that they can’t afford paying mortgage or rent. Affordable housing according to federal government costs 30% of family’s income and the poorest fifth of the population spend 78% of their wages in housing (Newman,
There are abut 47 million people on food stamps. Also more than eighty percent of the people that are on food stamps have a monthly income that is below the poverty line( ). Food stamps have also taken a cut in how much money they give out. This has become a big problem because people on food stamps are already struggling enough as it is and then when the food stamp company takes more money away from a family it makes it even harder for them to get food and provide for their family. Food stamps are also not accepted everywhere.
The poor and homelessness is on the rise because of falling wages, lack of affordable housing , and people loosing their jobs. Homelessness persists because of falling incomes. Low wage workers have been left behind as the rich and poor has mushroomed. To compound the problem, “ the real value of the minimum wage in 2004 was 26% less, than in 1979”. ( The Economic Policy Institute ).
The Great Depression didn't just end all at once. Many countries continued to suffer extreme poverty long after the governments declared the depression was over. When banks and businesses were forced to close down, it left millions of hardworking individuals without jobs and that then caused them to suffer financial hardship. With no way to earn money, many people could not pay their bills or buy food and needed help from the government to survive. The public were begging for some sort of program that would help them recover and hopefully gain back what they had lost.
One hot topic right now that could be classified as a social issue could be the rise of immigrants here in the United States. Immigrants come to america in search of freedom and work to provide for their families. But on the other hand, many people feel that the drop in the economy is due to the high number of illegal immigrants taking jobs here in america. A second somewhat major social issue is poverty and welfare here in america. As more and more families continue to fall below the official poverty line (which in 2005 was an estimated $19,971) the government feels a greater sense of urgency to fix this problem.