Homelessness Is An Ever Growing Epidemic

In the United States the homeless population continues to grow rapidly. Homelessness has been a public health issue for many decades. Often times these individuals feel as though society has turned a blind eye to them. This at risk population is seen by society as lazy or chose to live a life on the streets, but if one would examine this population closely would see that there is more to this at risk population than what society has labeled them as. The forces, which affect homelessness, are multifaceted. Social forces such as family breakdown, addictions, and mental illnesses are in combined with structural forces such as lack of low-cost housing, insufficient health services, and poor economic conditions. Many would

What do people think of homelessness? People think that they are people who can’t get a job and are too lazy to work.Seeing people on the streets, some yelling at others, some sleeping on the ground with no roof over their head,digging in the recycle to get as many bottles they can for money.Imagine living on the streets with not much food to spare or and love to spread,just concrete maybe a cardboard and a small blanket is all homeless will have. We can do so much more to help them. We can give them food drives, make apartments for them, get the education they need and so much more! It would be like having a baby born and teaching its way to a good life. Homelessness is a big global problem and we can solve it just by donating,caring, volunteering,and helping the whole world become a better place and having fantastic lives. This paper will discuss about homelessness, it will be discovered in it’s history,effects, and solutions.

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, approximately 564,708 people were homeless on a single night in January of 2015 in the United States (“The State of Homelessness in 2016”). It is estimated that 250,000 people who suffer from Mental Health illnesses are homeless (Torrey). Providing affordable housing, and access to mental health services for the homeless population are essential components to end the homeless epidemic.

Homelessness affects men, women, families, children, youth, and veterans. While structural factors, like the unequal distribution of income and lack of affordable housing, cause homelessness, certain vulnerabilities may determine who is at higher risk for homelessness. These include addictions, mental illness, domestic violence, medical conditions, and lack of education or job skills. This research paper will shed some light on the issue of homelessness and how we can prevents it with some suggested solutions.

How many people are homeless in the United States, why are they homeless, and what percentage of homeless people are negatively impacted by mental illness? These issues will be presented in this paper.

I decided to focus this paper on what we discussed last class about homeless people in America and how we are all affected by this issue in our country no matter, if we want to notice it or not.

Studies that take a deeper look into the rates of homelessness could lead to better treatment and help. It is especially important to study mentally ill homeless individuals that have substance abuse since these individuals are one of the most disadvantaged groups among homeless persons (Levine and Huebner 1991). There is no one explanation as to why an individual who is mentally ill will begin abusing their bodies with drugs, it is known though that when substance abuse and mental illness are combined contact with law enforcement is inevitable. All people with mental disorders, including those who are homeless, require ongoing access to a full range of treatment and rehabilitation services to lessen the impairment and disruption produced by their condition (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2003). Most people with mental disorder do not need hospitalization, what they do need is better housing options and more treatment options and but can live in the community with the appropriate supportive housing options. Further studies do show however that these community-based services are far and few in between and there is not enough housing to accommodate the growing number of patients affected by a mental illness.

When the issue of homelessness is brought forth in a conversation, many individuals think of drug addicts who are dirty and begging for change on a sidewalk to buy more drugs for their next fix. In some situations, that is not the case. Homelessness is a major issue in America today. Job lost and grieving of a loved one, mental illness and addiction, and domestic violence are recurring factors that can result to homelessness. If we all educate ourselves on the factors that lead to homelessness, as a nation, we would be able to decrease the percentage drastically.

While the environmental factors place a significant role on identifying the variables that impact a community, the individual factors are what define the problem more closely. This author has discovered that the individual factors that influence the mental health of the homeless are grouped in the single, non- hispanic, Caucasian, males that are thirty one years and older category. In addition, substance abuse is a factor that greatly affects a person’s mental illness. Harris and Edlund’s research show that “the prevalence of a serious mental illness was more than three times as

The introduction to your essay catches the attention of your audience. However, as I continued to read the essay it did not give me a clear understanding, as a reader, which angle you were taking. For instance, you were discussing the fact that homeless people are still human beings and should be treated as others, but then you begin to speak about police brutality. I believe this is an excellent topic; however, there needs to be more clarity, use of evidence from the documents that were cited, be specific and clear in word choice, and the transition should flow easy from one paragraph to the next.

Have you ever felt strongly about something? There are others who have to, join the cause to help fight the homelessness crisis,, you canmake a difference. The homeless crisis is a worldwide problem that needs to be resolved. It is so bad we have children in unconventional living places such as under bridges, foster homes, and in general outside. We need to solve it efficiently and effectively. Through fundraising foundations, temporary shelters, and last but not least Soup Kitchens we can dramatically reduce homelessness.

How often have you stepped out of your house or work and witnessed someone begging for food or money? How many times do you pull up to a stoplight or an on/off ramp to a highway and see someone that seems to be at their lowest? We all have seen this at least once in our lives but I would venture to say it has been many more times than that. Often times these individuals are homeless and searching for ways of how they are going to feed themselves or their families. Homelessness is an epidemic in the United States and it is a devastating social problem.

In the 2008 survey by the U.S Conferences of Mayors, mental illness was cited as the third largest cause of homelessness with 48% of cities reporting this fact (The United States Conference of Mayors, 2008). Mental illnesses are medical conditions that primarily affect the functioning of the mind mental illness affects an individual’s mood, emotions and their thought processes. The most common form of mental illness within the homeless community is depressive disorders, constituting nearly 25% of the mentally ill population within the homeless population. Depression causes low self esteem, a loss of interest in activities once found enjoyable and has an incapacitating affect on the individual’s ability to relate to others (National Institute

Homelessness typically becomes more prevalent in times of economic downturn or turmoil. However, according to the District of Columbia’s Interagency Council on Homelessness (DCICH), homelessness rates have been on the rise due to a variety of socioeconomic factors. These factors include rising income inequality, lack of affordable housing, depression of wages and public assistance programs, and the lack of mental health institutions that assist with the chronically homeless (Homeward D.C., 2015).

Homelessness is increasingly becoming an epidemic in North America as many cities grabble with this menace. According to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, about 35000 Canadians are homeless on a given night, while 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness in a year. According to the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness Homelessness Research Network,