Mayor Schell knew that being in a homeless facility was only short-term fix. His goal was to have those individuals take advantage of services that were being offered to them such as employment services and transitional housing (Norton, 2010). • Be more proactive in preventing homelessness. There could be over 1,300 people that would be homeless on any night in Seattle and 700 of those are families. The lack of affordable housing is one of the main reasons for the increasing numbers of homeless people in Seattle.
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.
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.
The couple and several relatives had come to Chicago in search of a better life. The area where their relatives moved to was a center of Lithuanian immigration. But the area they moved to a hard, dangerous, and filthy place where it is difficult to find a job. After the reception, the couple discovered that they are more than a hundred dollars in debt to the saloonkeeper. In Lithuania, its custom that guests at a wedding-feast leave money to cover the cost, but since they were in America, many of the guest leave the feast without leaving any money since money was being budgeted amongst each person due to the lack of jobs available.
In some of these inmates crime and deviance is all they know. The strain they have put or have been put in for most is hard to come out of. Some inmates have been there more than 20 years and have no hope of ever getting out. The gang activity is so great at this facility that the inmates have managed to control the gangs still on the streets from prison. Can or will this stop is the question criminologist have to find the answers
In an interview Thomas O’Donnell explains “…at Fall River if a man has not got a boy to act as “back-boy” it is very hard for him to get along…in many cases discharging men in that work and put in men who have boys…and that has brought my circumstances down very much…our children are very often sickly of not having sufficient clothes, shoes, food or something” (64, 65). Any immigrant that didn’t have a child did not stand a chance to work in that factory. Although, some immigrants without children were lucky and did have work for a few months at a time, but were later let go for unnecessary
Statistics shows that the cause of homelessness is because the lack of jobs. Others say that it is due to lack of housing. Several people are homeless even though they have a job. This happens because a lot of people work but they don’t make enough money to get above what is called the poverty line. Today’s estimate of fifty percent of the homeless has a full or part time job, but still don’t make enough money to pay their bills.
Societies homeless are more than the title bestowed upon them. Lacking not only a home but also lacking societies’ approval and also lacking in their own self esteem that they become the ones cast off by the populace. That when one looks up poverty in the dictionary they might find that poverty is defined as, the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions. Which in Adam Shepard’s novel, Scratch Beginnings, he spends 70 days in Charleston’s homeless shelter where he meets a variety of people including your typical “homeless man” which by society is deemed to be described as unkempt and ragged. Although he also comes across men that he did not believe that they even existed in these types of
Some of the slums residents lack any type of shelter and are forced to sleep outside, rats commonly bite people while they try to sleep, and barely a handful of the 3,000 residents of the slum are lucky enough to have full time employment. The conditions caused by the poverty in this slum were so harsh that Abdul, a kid who has to support a family of 11, and other residents are forced to turn to buying and selling the things that the richer people, from the nearby airport and hotels, throw away in means of
Jonathan Kozol investigates and uncovers the perspectives of homeless people vs. the opinions of people fortunate to have a home. During his examination, he comes across a variety of people; however, he realizes a shortage of sympathy. When interviewing well-off people, some labeled homeless people as “undesirables” or even “trash”. Generally, homeless people suffer from dehumanization making it harder for them to overcome their truly difficult situation. With predominant attitudes toward homeless people being clearly unfavorable, there is a deficit of compassion and understanding.