Personal Narrative: 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 became a huge problem in everywhere especially in the USA. Most people heard homeless people, and they saw homeless people in the streets, markets, or bridges. Most people never try to understand why there is much homelessness. Most people do not know any facts about them seem the truth of homelessness, the state of homelessness in the United States, and the effect on people from homelessness.

During the 1980’s the number of "homeless" people, those without a house in which to reside, increased at an alarming rate. Many analysts have given much time and thought as to the reasons that this phenomenon occurred. They cite economic instability and government policies with facts and figures to support their work. Beyond the research and cold statistics that explain this event, are the victims, and those that worked to help relieve their hardship. An interview with Philip Guerrieri gives us insight into the personal lives of these individuals whom he calls "houseless," and the realities of staying alive, both physically and spiritually, on the streets.

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

Given national recognition, The State of Homelessness in America benefits individuals needlessly suffering from a lack of shelter and a steady income. Efforts such as raising awareness and knowledge about the increase in the homeless population has sparked a number of organizations devoted to lessening the amount of individuals living on the streets in major cities. The state of homelessness is able to provide accurate information and statistics for viewers nationwide.

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

help others who are in any way, shape or form underprivileged; including the homeless. While,

Whose responsibility is it to help the homeless in the United States? I believe that it is everyone’s responsibility. As of January 2015 the homeless count in America was 564,708 people (Fluit, 2015). Even though this is a decline in homeless in America this is still unacceptable. As Americans we need to do all that we can to decrease these numbers. There is so much we could do that would go a long way to help our homeless, like donating time or money to the proper organizations.

According to the National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, “approximately 3.5 million people are homeless each year, while 36.3 million live in households without enough food.” This statistic only reflects the United States, and to many people, it just doesn’t make sense. For instance Alfredzine Black of the YWCA in Marion, Indiana says, “I don’t understand why we have so much poverty in the richest country in the world!” Citizens of the United States have a hard time defining and identifying poverty in their communities, so the country should crate a consistent and accurate measure of poverty. Also, urban growth is leaving people behind and causing unnecessary evictions that lead to homelessness, and this problem can be

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.

When I see someone experiencing homelessness, I questioned what led them to be homelessness. I questioned how come the most of country in the world have people experiencing homelessness. I remembered walking around downtown last summer, I was admiring how beautiful the city of Chicago is with its giant buildings, but when I noticed homeless people sleeping outside those buildings just made me question why people are sleeping outside those buildings. I thought it was just unfair in that purpose.

Today, if we see a multitude of skin on the road settled, that there is nothing strange. In fact, according to The State of Homelessness in America 2013, 610,042 people were experiencing homelessness; as the result, we can see a significant number through that report. Due to that reason, many charities have been established to be able to help the homelessness. According to me, one of the charities that I appreciate is Thomas House which is an Orange County non-profit organization for homeless because it provide a safe, supportive environment and the resources necessary for homeless families with children while empowering them to become independent and self-sufficient.

As Americans, individuals take the small comforts of life for granted daily. The everyday individual overlooks a growing dilemma in the U.S., and goes home every night to the comfort of their family. The homeless population has increased over the years, and continues to grow by the day with the increase of the cost of living. Healthcare needs, and the availability of facilities to the under privileged is a major problem in the United States. Up to 610,000 individuals and families are living on the streets each and every night. All of these individuals are at a greater risk of contracting an illness simply because of their living situations, as well as not having the means to financially afford the cost of a doctor’s visit.

Homelessness has always been a present problem in the United States. It is caused by many factors that some of us are not aware of. The situations of these people hurt their families and local communities alike. Two sources were examined for their content on these issues. This essay describes the hardships of homelessness and what can be done to help these people.

My friends often describe me as a cynic and a pessimist. For the most part, they're right. Sentiment loses value when it permeates one's attitudes and behavior just as the value of a commodity decreases as it becomes ubiquitous, so as a rule I reserve expressing sentiment for rare occasions that I deem worthy. Fortunately, even the harshest cynics are surprised sometimes.