Homelessness In The United States

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,

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.

Homeless as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an individual who lacks housing, including those whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provides temporary living accommodations, they are a person with out permanent housing, who may live on the streets, in a shelter, abandoned building, or other unstable situations (HHS). It is important for communities throughout the United States to develop a system that identifies the number of homeless around them. This information is valuable to many government and private agencies, it enables them to acquire, and maintain needed resources and money in order to best serve their homeless populations. There are different ways that communities attempt to count their homeless population, shelters, feeding centers and others who provide resources are able to take count of how many they serve each day, but unfortunately it can be hard to track those who do not come on a returning basis. The US Census Bureau every 10 years also conducts a Service-Based Enumeration (SEB) to help count the population In the study published by the National

According to a study done by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, in America alone, more than 3.5 million people, including 1.35 million children, experience homelessness yearly (nationalhomeless.org). Of that 3.5 million, 35% are families with children (studentsagainsthunger.org). Worldwide, 100 million people are homeless yearly (homelessworldcup.org). These people are forced to sleep in parks, under bridges, abandoned buildings, shelters, and sometimes cars if available. There are approximately 1.7 million homeless teens in the US and 1 of 7 of every teen are runaways (dosomething.org). More than half of these teens will use drugs or alcohol to self medicate through their traumatic experience. Unfortunately, 5,000 of these teens and young adults die yearly because of assault or illness on the streets (dosomething.org). In most cases, homelessness is temporary, but is still a problem encountered by many. Homelessness and poverty are increasing epidemics around the world, striking millions of people every age, ethnicity, and religion.

Homelessness is a problem that happens in many different countries around the world. Definitions of homelessness are defined in different meanings by different people. However, the Stewart B. McKinney Act defines a homeless person as “ one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accommodations for human beings” (McNamara 1025). It is impossible to find out exactly the number of homeless; however, the researchers can do a study to estimate that number. Based on different statistics from different researchers, the homeless population in America has been increasing as “an alarming rate” (Markos and Lima).

During the Great Depression, millions of Americans were unemployed which was a huge issue. Unemployment led to homelessness and being poor. Millions of people were unemployed and struggling to find any jobs (Hayes). As the Great Depression got worse and worse, the number of hiring jobs decreased and less jobs were available. Companies were “Firing and not hiring” so many Americans were homeless and unable to make money to support their struggling families (Hayes). The loss of jobs did an incredible amount of damage to the Americans living during this horrific time.

The purpose of this assignment is to research and explain the aspects of a particular social issue. I will begin by providing a brief history of the subject. I will elaborate on the causes and factors of those who are influenced. Additionally, I will explain the demographics and geographical locations in which the problem most commonly affects. In this assignment, I will further discuss a few of the operations that are in place to accommodate those in need of assistance. Finally, I will express a consideration that offers an alternative solution to ending or preventing the matter.

“In January 2015, 358,422 people experienced homelessness as individuals (64 percent of all homeless people). There were 206,286 homeless people in families with children on a single night in January 2015, accounting for 36 percent of all homeless people. Homelessness among individuals declined by less than 1 percent (or 1,767) between 2014 and 2015, and by 13 percent (or 54,278) between 2007 and 2015. Homelessness among people in families with children declined by 5 percent (or 9,975) between 2014 and 2015, and by 12 percent (or 28,272) between 2007 and 2015” (Authors et al, 2016).

The thought of being homeless is a terrifying to anyone, but sadly for many it is a reality. I could never imagine not knowing where I was going to sleep for the night, especially not as a teenager. Teenage years are a struggle for everyone then adding homelessness into it gives an entirely different set of issues for someone to be presented with.

The topic I have decided to focus Genius Hour on is how to solve the problem of homelessness in the United States. More than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year. And in 2013, there was a high of 2.5 million homeless children. But why should people care? People should care because if they ever went into foreclosure, they could be secure in knowing that they would still have a place to stay in and would not be forced to go on the streets. A solution to eliminating homelessness would be incorporating some socialism factors of government into our federal government. I consider this a sensible solution because our federal government has a double security system that prevents our government

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of poverty on young children and their families. The focus will be on homelessness and how the child is affected in two major settings: the home, or lack of, and school. In both of these settings, children are impacted by different social forces and must push through barriers that are set before them given their circumstance. “Living without permanent, long-term housing creates a number of stressors for children and families, but being homeless can be particularly detrimental to the healthy development of young children” (McCoy-Roth, Mackintosh, & Murphey, 2012). “Homeless families with very young children are one of the fastest growing segments of homelessness. This period in the life

Imagine how much more empowered the worker and lower income individuals would be if they didn't have or need to fear losing everything even if they’re getting fired. The United States has a lot of money probably trillion's or more dollars, which I believe is usually spent on war or sending troops to other country's for war when they are many citizens and people in the America losing their job. I know that there are a lot of people who probably quite there job, but those are the people I'm talking about I’m talking about the ones who get lay-end off, The United States I believe has a lot of money and a lot of people wanting help special form their government most of them can’t prove for their self so they need others to help, there isn’t really a reason why we could not solve poverty and homelessness, or even care for the many mentally ill who being on the streets either because they can’t keep their jobs or because they can’t provide for themselves.

According to reporter Angelo Vargas who wrote in Krgv News “Homeless Decrease Nationwide, Many Coming to the Valley”, he stated that many homeless people are coming down to the Valley to live. This can be proven as you see many homeless people roaming the streets every day. People such as Jessie Cutgrass and Gerardo Rico have fallen victim and said that that they are coming here to have a better life. Homelessness is increasing in the Valley and The Hidalgo County is the seventh poorest county in the State of Texas.

According to C. J. Carnacchio’s article, there are only around 300,000-600,000 homeless people in America, compared to the total population of 325.5 million. Only 15 percent of the homeless are homeless because of circumstances they could not control (Carnacchio, 2002). Carnacchio’s article also states that one of the most common reasons for homelessness is that

While health care in America is slowly improving, are we leaving people behind? Imagine waking up day and night with an infection that has no possibility of healing. Homeless individuals face this reality on a daily basis. For decades, America has been fighting to decrease and eventually eliminate homelessness. However, with the decline in employment opportunities and an increase in living cost, living the “American Dream” is now becoming a nightmare. Due to the rough culture of homelessness, individuals affected by homelessness cannot access medication as easily compared to the average middle-class citizen. Even with the advancement of the world’s richest country, there are still a large percentage of homeless individuals without essential necessities.