Homelessness In San Diego

Is there anything you own, particularly anything expensive which the thought of living without sends a shiver down your spine? You’d almost certainly be lying if you said no. There are so many amazing (but pricey) things you can buy these days, like super advanced smartphones, consoles with every kind of game imaginable and life size statues of TV characters (should you be so inclined).

Homelessness is an issue in American society today that affects anywhere from 800,000 to 3.5 million people. There are a substantial amount of people that are without shelter, food, or employment, and there are numerous other people affected by poverty and homelessness. People living in nearly every city in the United States are affected by homelessness due to the large amounts of homeless individuals living on the streets and begging for money, food, and other necessities. The issue of homelessness has been a constant problem since the conquering of the New World, and soup kitchens and homeless shelters have not been able to fully end homelessness. Especially today, with a lack of affordable housing and high unemployment rates, homelessness is prevalent.

     Here in Tahoe, we are lucky enough to experience a great quality of life, and only a few have to face the horrible life of poverty and homelessness. However, nationwide, even right outside the basin, homelessness is a growing epidemic across the country. There are many ways one can become homeless; for the most part poverty. There are also different concentrations of homeless in different types of terrain, such as urban or suburban areas. Last, there is the ever- growing homeless population, and how much money it costs us for others to live in poverty. These are the questions we ask ourselves about homelessness, and the only way we can help is to know the facts about this lingering

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

According to many people, homelessness is caused by low minimum wage, high unemployment rates, and overpriced housing. The minimum wage in California is $9.00 a hour, and a one bedroom apartment in Los Angeles is about $1,983. About 7.1 percent of the people are unemployed in the Los Angeles county, and about half the people rely on minimum wage. These overpriced apartments make it difficult for many families and individuals to have a stable home. When it comes to minimum wage or unemployment, you have one of two options, you either go hungry or become homeless. In order to fight against the real issue, we have to raise minimum wage, create more jobs, lower rent prices, or provide more financial support to

Homelessness in America has existed for some time now, but has grown and changed majorly over the years since the 1980’s. According to Mary Hombs, “the prevailing stereotype of a homeless person was that of a middle-aged white urban male alcoholic” (6). But now there is no stereotype because homelessness could happen to anyone at any moment, so that is why it important to be aware. Millions of people in this country do not have a place to live including whole families, children, veterans, and even the mentally ill. Going day after day without food or shelter. Throughout this paper the main focus will be answering the questions: What is homelessness?; What are the main causes of homelessness?: Who is the homeless?; and How do the people of this country assist the homeless?

Seeing homelessness develop is a process that the older generation can say they have been apart of. The young generation, on the other hand, cannot say they have seen the development of homelessness. People who are thirty years old or younger have grown up believing that homelessness was always part of the landscape. The younger generation has come to believe that there have always been homeless people sitting on park benches. When an individual is asked what they see most in a large city like Chicago or New York, ‘homeless people’ is a common response. According to the United States Census Bureau, 320.8 million individuals currently live in the United States of America. Imagine the proportion of individuals that do not own a car or even a house to live in. The National Law Center on Homelessness and poverty did studied to conclude that in America more than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year. Those concerned with the issue of homelessness are curious as to what events had to have happened that lead to the individuals living on the streets. The reasons are different for each and every person. Some of the more major issues that contribute to this are lack of affordable housing, declining welfare assistance, and most importantly, mental illness. Resolving the issue of homelessness is very possible with new ways of housing and treatment for the mentally ill. The relation between the homeless and the mental illness has risen, and the United States as a whole

Homelessness is a serious issue that is looked down upon within my community. Many homeless die when it’s too hot, too cold, or too wet. The New Orleans Mission sees this a huge issue and argue that homeless people are real people who need real resources, like shelter, food, and clothes. In addition, they have found that, without supportive services, housing is often not enough to end homelessness. From helping homeless youth, to providing assistance in obtaining disability benefits, to providing transportation, to offering intensive job training assistance to homeless veterans. The New Orleans Mission operate a number of innovative

Homelessness has always been a problem for the United States. Since its birth as a nation, there have consistently been individuals who find themselves without a place to live, looking for shelter with family, friends, or simply anywhere they can find it. These individuals have been targeted as candidates for social aid, but this was primarily provided by churches and other care organizations. However, in the past thirty years the homeless population has increased almost exponentially in numbers. While the cause of this is undetermined, it is quite certain that while the

While the homeless population in the United States has declined over the past five years it is still much higher then it needs to be. Currently San Diego County has the fifth highest homeless population in the United States. The homeless population of San Diego County is mostly located in and around the downtown and beach areas of the county however it has started to spread into more areas of the county to include the San Diego River area of Santee. While there is a portion of the homeless population that choose to be homeless a large number of them are homeless due to falling on hard times. While it would be hard to get every homeless person off the streets there are something’s that can be done to help them. One way to solve this problem is to repurpose some of the currently vacant government building and unused county owned land throughout the county and convert them into homeless shelters. While this solution may reduce the homeless population we first need to look at who and why people are homeless in this country.

There are varying estimates regarding the number of homeless people in America. According to reports from NLCHP the number of homeless people in America is 3 million which include 1.3 million children. ("Homelessness and Poverty, Overview," 1). As I am living in the state of California so I want you to take notice of the homelessness in this state. Estimates reveal that there are 4,400 to 8,800 homeless people in Foresno County (Della-Piana, 2006). The other areas like San Joaquin County has 2,700 people homeless (Farrow, 2009) and in Sacramento County there are similar number of homeless individuals. The situation has become worse due to financial crisis and financial conditions of foreclosures and layoffs. Other reasons are shortage of cheap housing and increase in inner city drug culture due to which homelessness increased in California's Central Valley.

There is a dire, hard pressing, unrelenting fact that San Diego, CA is home to more than 8,500 homeless individuals. On any given night there are more than 800 homeless people living unsheltered on the streets of downtown San Diego, a 26 percent increase since 2014 (Wrath, 2015). In order to begin to effectively assess the homeless crisis in downtown San Diego, a needs assessment should be completed to examine and determine the full extent of the social problem. Key informants are identified as well as the engagement and assessment skills a social worker would utilize in completing a needs assessment of the homeless crisis in downtown San Diego, California.

Throughout New York or even the United States, there are many people who are homeless and without jobs to help them survive. Many mothers and fathers are struggling to keep their homes while others are already out in New York streets trying to seek help. Those who are already on the streets are seeking charity from others as the walk by them. And to stop this from ever happening there should be more shelters, jobs, and help/supporters.

The number one state in America with the highest rate of homeless people is California with a total population of 113,952 homeless individuals with 71,437 of them being unsheltered (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development [HUD], 2014, p. 9). In 2014, San Francisco, CA was in the top-ten major cities with the largest numbers of homeless individuals totaling at 6,408 (HUD, 2014, p.11). The 2015 Homeless San Francisco Point-In-Time Count & Survey was conducted to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the experience of the homeless residents in San Francisco. Information from this study was collected from individuals and families sleeping on the street, emergency shelters, transitional housing, cars, abandoned properties, or in other places not meant for human habitation. A face-to-face representative survey was then taken from 1,027 participating homeless individuals to be used to profile and estimate the condition and characteristics of San Francisco’s homeless population (Applied Survey Research, 2015). Respondents were asked basic demographic questions such as age, gender, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity.

Ever since I was a kid, I always asked myself how would it feel like to be homeless. I never really understood back then how these people became homeless in the first place, but as I got older I understood why and how it can happen to anyone in a blink of an eye. Making bad decisions, hanging around the wrong crowd, getting addicted to drugs, being lazy, or just not having anyone around you to motivate you or push you. But for the most part you just don’t know what people have gone through in their life’s to end up being homeless. So I decided to try to be in their shoes for one day (literally) and see how that would turn out. I wouldn’t take this experiment that far like living outside or anything, but to a certain extent. I’d be too scared to sleep outside and be away from my house.