Chronic Homelessness Research Paper

The issue of chronic homelessness is not just a political or academic debate but has become evident from men and women living without homes in the streets of America. Homeless men and women

According to HUD, a chronically homeless individual is defined as someone who is “an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition who has been continuously homeless for a year or more, or four episodes of homelessness in the past three years” (Austin Travis County Mental Health Mental Retardation Center, 2004). In 2016, HUD reported 86,132 chronically homeless individuals in the United States (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2016).

Homelessness affects millions of people every year. Homelessness is an endless epidemic that continues to grow. There isn’t one specific causal factor to this every increasing population. Individuals experiencing homelessness come from various backgrounds and cultures physically, financially, and emotionally. They could be considered the melting pot for diversity. Often times individuals experiencing homeless are judged by their outer appearance with no regard for the contributing factors to the situation. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “in January 2014, there were 578,424 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States. Of that number, 216,197 are people in families, and 362,163 are individuals” (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2015). The homeless population contains “about 15 percent who are considered to be chronically homeless and 9 percent are homeless veterans” (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2015).

The United States of America is known for having a foreign policy that is willing to provide assistance to nations that are in crisis, while at the same time ignoring many of the same problems domestically. Whether this perspective is fair or unfair is debatable. However, what’s not debatable is that homelessness in the United States of America is a domestic social problem that is at an epidemic level. Statistical data quantifies the concern from the city of Los Angeles, where the recently re-elected Mayor Eric Garcetti is the political leader; the state of California, where Governor Edmond Gerald “Jerry” Brown is the political lead; and on the national level, President Donald Trump is the elected official. Consequently, the city of Los

The followings are the possible extraneous variables that can be influenced the study include: Settings, present health status, and the tool using (tape recorder). Settings can influence the result of this study because homeless individuals who live on the streets roam around and they normally do not have a stable place to be. Fortunately, these particular homeless individuals can be controlled because they can be targeted at Salvation Army Ministries lunches serving streets in most of the Polk County. These individuals regularly roaming on these specific streets and corners to get lunch every day and they will be the best participants to recruit for this study. The present health status must also consider because if their basic needs such

The moral solution to chronic homelessness is to create a support system that encourages independency as we are morally obligated to offer help, which benefits society as a whole since providing shelter is more cost efficient than the alternative and provides the foundation for people to become productive members of society. Because we are obligated to help those who cannot help themselves, creating a system that provides basic needs is a moral solution. By implementing a system that provides necessities for the homeless, we reduce annual taxpayer costs; therefore, minimizing harm on society. By encouraging independence in a system while still providing basic needs, it gives the chronically homeless the opportunity to become self reliant,

Gender inequality, police brutality and transgender rights are just a few societal issues impacting the way our society functions today. However, the social issue I have chosen is homelessness, specifically the causes and effects of homelessness in America because of recent observations. Since moving to Akron, I have noticed that the amount of homeless individuals seems more present in urban areas. Considering this new observation, I began to wonder how people become homeless and how this affects not only Akron, but our society in general. Although the rates of homelessness are moderately decreasing, homelessness is a public issue because it influences our economy and public health. The stigma around mental illness plays a huge part in the rates of homelessness. According to the National Coalition for the Homeless, about a quarter of the homeless population

Homelessness, like many social issues, is simple or complicated depending on the perspective from which it is viewed. Perspective matters because theory drive practice. How an issue is framed has implications for how it is treated (Weil, M. & Ohmer, M., 2013, p. 11). For example, Merriam Webster defines homelessness as “having no home or permanent place of residence.” The simplicity of this definition is seductive; however, from a social service perspective it could be problematic. Too many people could qualify for services under this definition, further constraining housing resources that are already scarce. In contrast, the State of Homelessness in Michigan, 2014, provides a definition which narrows the criteria by including the words “chronic” and “document disability”, making this definition more restrictive. As with the first

As I walk down the streets of my city on a warm summer morning, I see a variety of people. Every step I take I see a different person and with each person comes a different story. During my walk, I see a group of kids younger than me smoking on the corner. I couple minutes later I see a mother and her child sitting on a bench in the park. Both the mother and child have bruises on them. Finally, just before reaching my destination, I see a homeless man sitting on the sidewalk and he is asking others for money so that he can buy some food. I walk into my house and sit down on my sofa and as I am sitting there, all I can think of were the different people I saw on my walk. What are their stories? Why are those kids smoking? Why are that woman and child covered in bruises? What happened in that poor man's life? How did he hit rock bottom?

My first field placement was at a homeless sheltering program for families with children, not a crisis center. All of the families that were involved in the program were experiencing financial hardships and needed the necessary resources to bring them back to self-sufficiency. Reading the article, Understanding the Psychodynamics of Chronic Homelessness from a Self-Psychological Perspective, provided a deeper understanding of the many different aspects which could cause an individual to become chronically homeless. It is quite disheartening to see homeless people sleeping on the sidewalks in the city, and I never gave it much thought as to why they are out there alone on the streets, especially when there are homeless shelters available to

Homelessness is an unfortunate epidemic that has plagued communities across the United States for decades. Although a homeless population has existed in our society throughout history, this social issue came to a head only a few decades ago in the early 1980’s. What defines homelessness varies from source to source, however a concise definition, stated by the McKinney-Vento Act, specifies that a homeless individual is typically one that lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night time residence (McKinney-Vento Act, 2001). Approximately 3.5 million people experience homelessness at some point each year in the United States. The homeless population is presently declining across the country. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reported a seventeen percent decrease in the homeless population between the years 2005 and 2012. However this trend is really only a mirage, that is certain to end and revert itself in the opposite direction. The increasing population, scarce resources and the surging number of individuals living at or below the poverty line indicate that the number of people without adequate shelter will eventually increase.

Women being homelessness is a problem that persist in my community. I just move to Washington DC, and every time that I work on my way back home, I saw many women sitting on the bench with many bags around them. I cannot imagine myself going through that situation, and it bothers me a lot, especially now with this cold weather. Those women not only have to run store after store in order to use the bathroom, and shelter after shelter in order to get some clothes and somethings to eat, but also they have to stay in the cold and being expose to illness. Those women have not only difficulty to take their bath during the day, but also they are depressed, unhappy and have lost the pleasure of life. In addition, these women have difficulty to find

Poverty and homelessness are connected when individuals, families and the working poor attempt to live below the poverty threshold. The underprivileged and those living under the poverty threshold are “frequently unable to pay for housing, food, childcare, health care, and education” (nationalcoalitionforthehomeless.org). Housing accounts for a major percentage of income and often must be eliminated. “Two issues that contribute to increasing poverty are: eroding employment opportunities for large segments of the workforce and the declining availability of public assistance” (nationalcoalitionforthehomeless.org).

Chronic homelessness, defined by HUD, is a person who is an unaccompanied homeless individual with a disabling condition, who has either been continuously homeless for a year or more or has had at least four episodes of homelessness in the past three years (“Facts and Figures: The Homeless”). The “Opening Doors” plan has made this successful by…..

Many homeless people are struggling to survive. We do not see it because we live in our own world. The one thing people think of is that the homeless are lazy. Not all homeless people are lazy. They might have lost their job or maybe they cannot support themselves. Imagine you lost your job, and you are wearing black baggy jeans, a gray tank top and living by yourself with no one to talk to on the street. Would you feel happy not being acknowledged by others? Although people walk right past the homeless, they do not feel the struggle of what they go through. We should acknowledge the homeless because it would improve the quality of life.