Homelessness In Houston

Homelessness has been a prevalent and contentious topic since its public emergence in the 1980’s. In fact, according to the most recent estimates, on any given night in the United States, there are roughly 645,000 people residing in homeless shelters or unsheltered street locations (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2011). And based on a local study done by the Mental Health Unit at the Houston Police Department in 2011, Houston has the largest homeless population in Texas and the eighth largest in the United States. While many great efforts have been put forth to aid the homeless population in Houston, “the public health epidemiology task of quantifying and tracking child and family homelessness over time has been complicated…by increasing rates of…shortages [in] affordable housing” (Grant et al., 2013), and restrictions on temporary encampments (Loftus-Ferren, 2013). In order to successfully reduce, prevent and combat homelessness, more policies must be put in place to create sustainable, affordable housing for homeless families and to modify current laws that harm homeless individuals.

When walking down the streets of Los Angeles, people will often encounter homelessness. Homelessness is currently considered a major problem in Los Angeles. Since 2013 homeless population in Los Angeles has increased by 12 percent. According to SCANPH (Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing), Los Angeles has the highest street homeless population in the nation. There are about 26,000 homeless people in the city of Los Angeles, and about 44,300 homeless people in the Los Angeles County; about 75 percent of these homeless are individuals, 17 percent are families, and 8 percent are minors. People can become homeless for different reasons, such as illnesses, domestic violence, physical disability, mental disability, and etc.

Homelessness in the United States can be ended, not just maintained. Allot of cities now have plans to eradicate homelessness. Homelessness and housing instability are large issues that afflict a diverse demographic such as: Families, youth, veterans, and chronically homeless single male adults. Ending homelessness may require specialized solutions that are specific to individual needs. Factors like these make defeating homelessness a difficult task. Although solutions exist for some of the demographics, such as housing for chronically homeless adults, scaling up best practices remains a challenge. For other subpopulations, such as transitional aged youth, evidence-based interventions need to be developed. In this paper we argue that ending homelessness is a Grand Challenge that is big, important, and compelling—one that the profession of social work should be adopt. Meeting this challenge will require a focused, organized response from social work researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. Ending homelessness will require innovation and interdisciplinary or cross-sector collaboration. Key words: Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing, rapid re-housing, prevention, poverty. The notion that homelessness in the United States can be ended, rather than managed (Mangano, 2002; National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2012), represents a fundamental shift in expectations from the 1980s and ’90s. Since the early 2000s, researchers, policymakers, advocates,

For Father’s Day this past year my family and I treated our Dad to a Houston Astros baseball game. The game was held at Minute Maid Park in the heart of Downtown Houston. We were running late for the game and it began to rain. While driving around I witnessed more homeless people on the streets than ever. As we walked to the stadium after parking, I could not help but think about each of their (the homeless) situation. It was daunting to me that they were spending a holiday alone and it was a norm for them. Homeless people are often not given the time of day by everyday citizens. Chris Hadfield explains that when a problem exists, human nature causes us to bolt from the situation rather than approach it immediately (Hadfield 55). Currently (2016) there are approximately two million Houstonians (Suburban Stats) and of those, more than 5,000 citizens are homeless (Homeless Houston). It is easy to forget about the homeless because they are neglected from society. If homeless people were given a purpose, then they would not be occupying space on the streets.

Hiking through Rocky Mountain National Park the beauty was overwhelming, the next day our team was serving in downtown Denver in a Street reach meal service to people suffering from homelessness. The beauty of the mountains was overwhelming but then we surrounded by this vast issue of homelessness. Both of these moving experiences, along with many other moments during the week, that made this trip personally impactful and helped me to see the world in a more vivid light.

There are an estimated 2,981 homeless people in San Antonio each day. Out of these, 1,243 were unsheltered and a staggering 31% of those are people with families. In addition, the average age of a homeless child in San Antonio is 6 years old. An overall picture shows that homelessness has dropped nearly four percent from 2012 to 2013. Further, an average of 610,042 people are homeless across the United States on any given night. “Of that number, 36 percent – 222,197 people – were in families, representing a drop of 7 percent for that group” (Chappell, 2013, p. #). More than a third of these people were not found in shelters, abandoned buildings, cars, or under bridges. Although, there has been a small decline in homelessness,

While Atlanta is a city filled with wonderful buildings and people, there definitely still are problems that are in need of solving. One thing we realized was that there happens to be hundreds of abandoned buildings in Atlanta. We also learned that currently the population of homeless people in Atlanta is 6,664, this is way too many people living on the streets. A solution to the both of these problems is clear to see. The public could renovate the abandoned buildings into homeless shelters, reducing the amount of people living on the streets.

Homelessness in the United States is a serious problem that can be helped by giving homeless people opportunities to thrive in better conditions and/or communities. Although getting them off the streets is a huge step in the right direction, other actions need to be taken. Making sure they have somebody in their corner is a huge step in that process. There are 1,750,000 homeless people on the streets at this very moment. 1 in 30 children in the US, 40% of the homeless population are also Veterans. Some people wonder how someone even becomes homeless, there are multiple reasons, such as physical or mental impairments, living in poverty, and tragic life occurrences.

Homelessness is a national epidemic that affects much of our society. “In Texas, there were 29,615 persons homeless in 2013, meaning that approximately 12 out of every 10,000 persons in Texas are homeless” (Homelessness 101). Homelessness is a problem that is everywhere and unseen by many. There are many community outreach programs, religious organizations, including government agencies that aid in the welfare of homeless. Why is it that homelessness still remains a unsolved

The bill S1680 relates to school placement and stability for homeless children. The purpose of the bill is to amend the social service law and the education law, in relations to children that are homeless are in out of home care. The bill also creates a process in which New York State is in compliance with the federal fostering connections to the success act. It also clarifies the rights afforded to homeless children in choosing the school and school district they will attend, by changing the language to 3209 of the education law with subtitle B of title VII of the federal McKinney-Vento homeless education assistance act, 42 D.S.C.11431 et seq (NY senate). The purpose of this paper is to get a better understand and illustrate the processes

There are programs that can help these individual and families. People can get help though their local Human Services Department. The Human services provides aid to low income families and individuals. Some of these services include, housing, referrals for food pantry, emergency shelters, and outreach centers. Low income families and individual that qualified for these programs can include; single individuals, couples, families with children, elderly, veterans, and single mothers. Here is some information for programs for the homeless the State Rental Allowance Program (RAP) is a rent assistance program for the homeless that aid families and individuals. This program will help these individuals with temporary rent assistance for approximately

Texas is known to have reduced its homeless percentage by 42% since the year of 2007. This percentage was recorded by a Federal Survey and the population of the homeless are rejoicing because Texas advocacies have given them shelter over the past years. Eric Samuels, an executive director of the Texas Homeless Network stated that the reason that Texas homeless population is dropping because they are improving on their funding and supporting and they have advanced on their newest methods for housing. Texas advocacies have impacted on homeless people because these advocacies provided shelter, clothing and food. It is partially the homeless fault for not working, but they are human as well and they make mistakes also. These homeless people feel comforted and safe, knowing that they have a safe place to be in. To the nation, Texas has done a great work in securing the homeless people, in our

Homelessness has increasing become one of the most pressing and urgent social political problems of our time. It is argued that three of the most important policy issues are health, housing and income. Homelessness is defined as a situation in which an individual lacks a fixed, regular and adequate residence during the night. This definition excludes individuals in correctional facilities or those detained by law. The case is clearly depicted in urban communities, where thousands of people live on the streets or shelters. In rural areas the case of homelessness is less prevalent in that, homeless persons are likely to live with a relative or friends in

Homelessness is a social problem that is everywhere. When driving a car or walking down the street, sooner or later, there will be a homeless person. The exact number of homeless in America is difficult to obtain, but it is estimated that 2.3 to 3.5 million people nationwide will experience homelessness every year (Thompson. p. 2). Why are they homeless? While the causes of homelessness vary, there are a few reasons which are always present. Learning some of these reasons can help give a better understanding of the homeless situation. Homelessness is a social problem in America caused by financial difficulties, domestic violence, and substance abuse.

Homelessness has become an epidemic across the United States of America over the past 40 years. Despite the fact that most individuals are reminded of this problem on a daily basis when they see those without homes on the street, few solutions have been implemented that would fix the causes of this horrendous issue. Funding for programs that assist the homeless and homeless prevention programs is abysmal, while the costs incurred due to such a large homeless population continue to rise. Over the past century, a variety of acts and programs have been put in place that has dramatically affected the homeless population of the time, both positively and negatively. This problem can be directly linked to the outcomes of these acts and programs. In order to attack the root cause, the American population needs to look back at the history of homelessness and increase our awareness of what is truly preventing the homeless from mobilizing.