Personal Narrative: The Decline Of Homelessness

Walking down the streets of many urban areas, a person is often faced with a seemingly ignored problem: homelessness. As often as the phenomenon homelessness occurs, most people ignore it as if it is acceptable. Although there are some people who try to give donations and shelters, the government has not figured out anything that will bring a lasting solution to homelessness.

The Homeless are a vulnerable population. Homelessness is a social issue that anyone can almost be subjected to despite his or her age, race, ethnicity or geographical background. Kornblum (2012) defined homelessness as… “as a social condition in which people do not have regular housing and are forced to sleep in public places, public shelters, or facilities designed for homeless individuals and families” (p.280). The homeless population faces several adversaries in their lifetime of being homeless. Their adversaries are a lack physical and emotional disabilities, and possibly drug abuse. Grant some are homeless by choice, whereas most are homeless by mishaps, but nevertheless, they are humans deserving to be treated with fairness, dignity,

Today, Homelessness in the US is becoming one of the top challenging issues to fix. Recent available data shows an increase the number of the homeless between 2014 and 2015. On a single night in January 2014, 578,424 people were experiencing Homelessness — meaning they were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program. From 2014 to 2015, a period of ongoing recovery from the Great Recession, overall homelessness decreased by 2.3 percent and Homelessness decreased among every major subpopulation: unsheltered persons (10 percent), families (2.7 percent), chronically Homeless individuals (2.5 percent), and veterans (10.5 percent). Yet a recent report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, says homelessness decreased by nearly 4% over the past year.. The reports shows:

Homelessness is a serious societal problem affecting our communities. Katel of Housing the Homeless says “about 1.5 million Americans use a shelter in a given year- and advocates for the homeless say that figure badly understates the problem.” Yet, society looks down at these people, not doing anything to help them. They are judged, criticized, and bombarded by false assumptions everywhere they go. I have heard people say “they are like that because they chose to” or “they are lazy and don't want to work.” This is not true in most cases. The reality is life can go wrong at any moment for anyone. For some people there is no one there to help them and their only option is living on the streets or a shelter.

Homelessness is an epidemic social problem that faces several individuals and families across the United States, especially in Detroit, Michigan. You may have seen a person or family sleeping on a park bench, under bridges and other public areas. Perhaps you have seen them holding up a sign on a street corner asking for money because of the hunger pains. At some point, we all had taken a look at the person holding up their sign thinking it’s not my problem. Why should I help? They’re probably lying or scamming just to make money to buy drugs and alcohol. However, there is a small part of us who may want to give money, buy some food or we may to choose to ignore the problem. Who are we to decide who’s

The issue of chronic homelessness is not just a political or academic debate but has become evident from men and women living without homes in the streets of America. Homeless men and women

All over America, there are people wandering the streets without a home. These individuals are seen as a crowd, a separate collective existence. They are called the homeless, as if that defines who they are, but we too often neglect to add the unspoken word in that title; people. It seems today that the more fortunate citizens of America who have a roof over their heads have forgotten their innate responsibility to watch over those in this world whom are incapable of caring for them-selves. The fact is, that there are millions of homeless in America today. Many of these people had no choice but to become homeless. Economic problems such as being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of housing had lead people to

Although people tend to pass homeless people on street corners every day without batting an eye, it must be realized that the homeless are our neighbors and deserve someone who will show them compassion to ease the suffering they face on a daily basis. It seems as though we have become desensitized to what it really means to be homeless. Although it is common to see multiple homeless people in Denver on any given day, the general public doesn’t often think about what it would feel like to be cold and hungry, with nowhere to go and no one to turn to. Many

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.

Homelessness is an arising problem within the United States. Poverty and homelessness are inheritably linked. As children we were raised to believe that through hard work and determination that we could accomplish anything. We all had dreams of having nice cars, a nice home and lots of money, however this is impossible when a person is living pay check to pay check and close to being homeless. Knowing that we live in the “land of opportunity” brings many dreams to anyone’s mind, however, many families are experiencing financial issues that are causing them to become homeless because they cannot afford to live and pay their bills, food, child care, health care and education (National Coalition of the homeless, 2007). Homelessness in America is persistent, complex and widely-occurring problem that incorporates many economic, social and psychological dimensions (National Coalition of the homeless, 2007). With the shortage of affordable rental property is causing the increasing number of poverty families. Homelessness doesn’t only affect an adult but it does affect many children. In America, 3.5 million Americans are homeless each year. However, of these Americans that are homeless children make up more than 1 million people who are homeless (Home Aid America , n.d.). With children and many families that are homeless, veterans, and domestic

We as a society ignore those individuals and groups that we find different and/or threatening, we view them as ‘‘outsiders’’ (Belcher 930), and exclude them socially. In some respects, the societal images of the homeless have framed the causes of homeless squarely on the victim’s shoulders, rather than a structural one (Belcher 931). Thus, being homeless is the fault of the victim, not society. Therefore, discrimination and prejudice result from this social or public stigma which allows or enables society both to control people who are homeless and limit calls for broader reform. Stigma is likely to exist when there is labeling, stereotyping, separating (us versus them), status loss, and discrimination in a situation where there is unequal social, economic, and political power. Looking back at stigmatized individuals are often times viewed as flawed and less than human. The public views homelessness as an undesirable social problem and wants it addressed, while at the same time they hold negative views toward people who are homeless and stigmatize them. The problem of homelessness is becoming one of the main problems of the modern society, and yet we sit back and wait for change to occur forgetting that nobody can be immune against vague life situations and possible social dangers. According to German Sociologist U. Beck, we live in a risky society. Our society today is filled with

As a kid I had always lived in well diversified areas. I didn't care who you were or what you looked like, I was raised to treat everyone the same. I wasn't personally exposed to the idea of inequality until I was in middle school. I had always imagined that everyone just had jobs and lived their daily lives. I didn't quite grasp the extent of the idea that people can die, be homeless, be criminals, or racists. I also didn't grasp how great the people of our society can be. That was until my parents told me about the first times they had in America coming from Mexico. I don't remember what I said or did to provoke these stories, but they were surely eye opening.

The United States is currently experiencing a homelessness crisis, matched by the Great Depression. An estimated number of sixty-two thousand American citizens are restricted to living in shelters in New York City alone, which also does not include those who are not living in the shelters. Giselle Routhier, policy director for the Coalition for the Homeless, addresses this issue in her in-depth website article titled Rejecting Low Expectations: Housing is the Answer. Published in 2017 by the Coalition for the Homeless website (http://nationalhomeless.org), her primary focus in writing this extensive article was to bring awareness to the homeless problem (as of 2017) in New York City and provide the public with possible solutions. In her website

For many of us, shelter and food are things that may come easy. However, the same cannot be said for many people in the world today. While we complain about the weather or the food not tasting the way it should, someone out there today may not even have a place to stay or food to eat. Homelessness is an issue that we’ve all heard of and probably witnessed as well. Most people will point fingers and say that it’s the individual’s fault for always doing drugs and not having a job. However, that isn’t true for most cases. A lot of people are not aware of the correlations and causations, magnitude, and demographics of homelessness. Often times, we are more focused on whose fault it is rather than what actually caused the problem and who is being

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.