Parable Of The Sower By Octavia Butler

In the Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler, the main character, Lauren Olamina, leaves behind Christianity, a religion that she identified with her whole life and creates a new religion known as Earthseed. Earthseed is a naturalistic way of faith, based on the idea that God is changeable, therefore life, too, could change. Lauren Olamina creates Earthseed because she believes that it is what her people need in order to not only alter their chaotic and misguided ways, but to live a pro-active and positive life.

“One diverse population that has continued to increase over the quarter of a century is composed of people who are homeless” (Baggerly & Zalaquett, 2006, p.155). Homelessness has become a growing problem in society because more and more people are finding themselves to be homeless and not knowing where to turn. Many people do not

Homelessness is a social problem that is prevalent around the world. Homelessness has existed for much of "civilized" human history. In the last two centuries, homelessness and changed and expanded. Sociologists who study and research homelessness have argued over its formal definition for decades, though for some, the definition of homelessness seems self explanatory and obvious. The paper will examine homelessness, particularly as a sociological issue, or a social issue seen from a sociological perspective. The paper will additionally reference sociological theory as a means of explanation for homelessness, such its causes, the demographics/populations, and other prominent known characteristics of homeless people. There are individuals and groups who choose to be, from a normative societal perspective, homeless, but for a great deal of the homeless population, it can be a treacherous and tragic lifestyle that is a result of a distinct set of social, societal, and individual factors.

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

Currently, the rates of homelessness in America continue to drastically increase. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2012) depicted how many people are homeless in a single night in America. The findings revealed that there were approximately 633,782 people who are homeless in America or 20 out of every 10,000. Approximately 394,379 are single individuals and 239,403 are people in families with 77,157 homeless families in a single night, and approximately 162, 246 are children. Veterans are more likely to be homeless than those who are non-veterans, approximately 29 out of every 10,000 veterans are homeless. Unfortunately, 38 percent of those who are homeless are unsheltered, either living on the streets or in places that are not suitable for human inhabitation. Most states account of for less than 1% of homeless population, whereas Texas contains approximately 5.4% of America’s homeless population. In San Antonio, there are approximately 2,981 people who are homeless each day, and 1,243 are unsheltered. Through a sociological perspective, the social problems of homelessness can be analyzed through the concept of sociological imagination, the comparison of the person-blame approach and the system-blame approach, and through the analysis of one’s own community’s effort in helping those who are homeless.

A homeless person is one who lacks a permanent place to live. This person is therefore forced to live on the streets, in abandoned buildings, in cars, and some lucky ones get to live in shelters where they are safe from the dangers of the night and also from the harsh elements. These people find themselves in such a situation because they cannot afford to pay for a place to live. This can be caused by a variety of reasons. Economic factors is one of them, where one is unable to get enough money to pay for their house either because they don’t have a job or the money they get at the end of the month is insufficient. There is also the issue of high cost of housing which renders a permanent place to live way out of their reach. They

Homelessness is basically another form of poverty except more extreme, yet society treats it as if it was on another spectrum of problems. Some in society stigmatize this population by saying things like: they’re homeless because they are drug addicts, alcoholics, they don’t want to work and just live off the government for free. What many forget to think about are the factors that have these people on the street, or the fact that they are not only experiencing personal hardship by being without a permanent residence but emotional ones as well. Add the fact they are sometimes discriminated against and excluded by society, and you will realize you are looking at one of the most vulnerable populations.

In the United States, almost 2 people out of every 1000 people experience homelessness (National Alliance to End Homelessness). In 2014, statistics have revealed that on any given night, almost half a million people experienced homelessness. Many people have a misconception that homelessness simply means living on the street. The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development suggests homelessness is a whole spectrum. According to the HUD, people experiencing homelessness are people who don’t have a fixed and regular residence (shelter, house, hotel, etc…), people running away from all sorts of domestic violence and sexual abuse, and/or people living in places not intended for residence, such as streets, cars, etc...(U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development). Regardless of what definition society uses, homelessness is, and will always be, unjust.

We often hear that people in our society blame the homeless for living on the streets. Society does not think it could happen to them but in reality it can happen to anyone. Society tends to forget that what the homeless have to go through with the struggles and obstacles of living on the streets. The cold temperatures, lack of clothing, sleep and food, this is not a choice someone would make.

Homelessness is portrayed as circumstances of people or family units without steady, uninterrupted, proper lodging, or the quick prospect, means and capacity of getting it. It is the aftereffect of universal or public obstructions, an absence of reasonable and suitable lodging, the individual/family unit 's money related, mental, cognitive, behavioral or physical difficulties, and/or bigotry and segregation. A majority of individuals don 't decide to be dispossessed, and the occurrence is usually negative, unsavory, upsetting and troubling

The issue of homelessness has been called as one that is "highly ambiguous and intangible" (Neale, 1997, p.7). Wright defines the homeless a "diverse, heterogeneous lot. No single catch phrase or easy myth can possibly describe them all" (p.46)

People drive or walk past a homeless person almost every day without thinking twice about the plight of that person or they may even unconsciously turn their heads the other way in disgust. Homelessness simply put, means without a home - therefore homelessness is an equal opportunity state that can happen to anyone. Even though we have seen some economic prosperity over the years, statistics show that the number of homeless remains very high. With this in mind, communities need to come together at the state, city, and individual level to come up with solutions to mitigate the spreading of this problem.

One of the biggest changes in history is how the responsibility for helping the less fortunate has shifted from community members such as the wealthy would help the poor during the protestant era, or 11th century (Martin, 2014). To now a more individualistic society, that generally tends to utilize stereotypes and lacks compassion (Martin, 2014). Where the way a person decides to live their life, and what material possessions seem to be important (Martin, 2014). Therefore, anyone that deviates from this belief of success is a thought to be a failure or lazy. Thus, as a society, perhaps we tend to be more subjective than objective, thus continuing to feed into the cycle of homelessness (Martin, 2014). After all, homeless individuals of all ages are not using resources are much as they should (Martin, 2014). One suspected factor is that homeless people feel a high level of shame as it is, that using resources would only heighten the shame (Martin, 2014). This same thought process is what may be contributing to the 2 million adolescents living on the streets in the United States (Martin, 2014). Some of the runaway youth end up on the streets due to running away from an abusive environment, being kicked out by family, or because

The purpose of this study is to comprehend the who, what, why, when, and where of homelessness.

The U. S. Census Bureau reported in 2007 that the population of unsheltered individuals living in Los Angeles alone is over 40,000, which reveals that for every ninety-six sheltered people, there is one homeless individual (Department of Homeless Services 9). The rate is so high specifically in Los Angeles because of the extremely high living costs that we have. The reason why there are so many homeless individuals in America vary depending on person as well as the obstacles they have experienced. In the book, The Homeless: Opposing Viewpoints, different aspects of being homeless are addressed from several different authors,