Poverty and Homelessness

When we discuss Poverty in the United States

The book “The Other America”, written by Michael Harrington, describes poverty in America in the 1950s and 1960s, when America became one of the most affluent and advanced nations in the world. The book was written in 1962, and Harrington states that there were about 50,000,000 (about 25% of the total population) poor in America at that time. The author did extensive research with respect to the family income levels to derive the poverty numbers, and used his own observations and experiences to write this book. This book addresses the reasons for poverty, the nature of poverty, the culture of poverty, the blindness of Middle Class America with respect to poverty, and the responsibility of all Americans in addressing the issue of poverty in America.

There is also a major case of gentrification, where suburban Americans are moving to urban neighborhoods raising the process of living and resulting in the Americans living in those neighborhoods to have to move to the suburbs. Resulting in the suburbs now facing poverty and lacking the resources to aid the people who are moving there, like public transportation. There has been a frequent amount of progress to help the working poor, however, there has been no improvement because it is nowhere near what is actually needed. A major point which was made in the movie was that once you are working, you no longer qualify for assistance because you would now be making too much. Many of the working poor have incomes right at the poverty level and because of that they do not qualify. It is a major problem, because these individuals are just making enough to get by and not to actual “live comfortably”. Overall the film explains, because of Americans not believing in the seriousness of poverty or the ones affected by it there has been no major moves to improve it resulting in poverty rates only getting higher over the

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

A question one might ask themselves; why would two authors write a book on the working poor? This topic is of high importance but people in the United States do not seem to understand. The census taken in 2012 tells us 46.5 million people in the United States are living in poverty and 20.4 million people are living in deep poverty which is where income is 50% lower than the poverty line. 80% of humanity living in the United States lives on $10 a day; that is over half of the people living in poverty, and they are hardly being able to provide for themselves. Working class is the majority in the United States which makes this topic very important. When 80% of the U.S. population is considered the working poor, and they live below the poverty

Overall, this exercise showed me the very real struggle that those who live in poverty face when trying to simply provide the bare necessities such as housing and food. Even so, the need for reform in intense. The first step in overcoming the financial barriers of poverty is not merely raising minimum wage or providing more governmental assistance, but the main area that needs reformation is in the eyes of the American populace. By changing the viewpoint of Americans who are not in financial poverty, the rest of the reform will follow

To many Americans, poverty is merely a synonym for ‘not rich’. Even those who understand the definition may struggle with the concept that poverty is not a distant, foreign, concern; poverty can occur in any country, region, neighborhood, and household. In a study performed by Carroll et al, 60% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “poor people are poor because of laziness and lack of will power (2011, p. 116). In the same questionnaire, 77% of respondents felt most poor people have the ability to escape poverty without government assistance (Carroll et al, 2011, p. 117). As above facts show, despite the widespread nature of this issue those not living in poverty often have

Overall, this paper is about how poverty is very prominent in our society, and we need to learn more about it. We need to increase aid to low- income families because they cannot support

It's hard to believe in a country as wealthy as the United States, that we have the problem of poverty. Poverty has not become a recent problem of our

In the U.S., the primary source of income comes from jobs. However, people are unable to find jobs because businesses are outsourcing unskilled labor to developing countries since workers there are willing to be paid less than the average American worker. This creates problems for people who are trying to look for jobs because many lack the skills to function in a job that requires skill and will remain jobless until they find unskilled labor jobs. Since the Recession, working class families who had lost their jobs are struggling to survive due to the little job availability (Heritage Foundation, 2011). Because the majority of working class families are suffering from prolonged

In 2008, poverty is considered as one of the most intractable problems due to the developments of industrialization and capitalism that led to an increased gap between the rich and poor. 1.4 billion people live on $1.25 per day while 963 million people live in hunger. Written in 2015, this source gave a brief overview of poverty and its history. Different types of terms are used to describe poverty and the history was able to provide a basic explanation of its existence. There were no spelling errors and the given information was not biased. It was written by Laura Finley, a sociology and criminology professor, who works with topics related to human rights and social justice. Although this is a credible source, I would need to search for more

Imagine a world where it is illegal to sit down. Could you survive if there were no place you were allowed to fall asleep, to store your belongings, or to stand still? For most of us, these scenarios seem unrealistic to the point of being ludicrous. But, for homeless people across America, these circumstances are an ordinary part of life. (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty 7)

While it has proven to be difficult to end poverty in America, Peter Edelman is optimistic. In his book So Rich, So Poor Edelman makes a call to action. There are four prominent ideas that underpin Edelman’s reasoning throughout the book: (1) More people must understand why poverty is still so prevalent in America; (2) extreme poverty must be taken into consideration as a shocking 6 million Americans’ sole income was food stamps in 2011. This fact alone creates a sense of urgency that drives Edelman; (3) increasing income inequality should be treated as a moral issue; and (4) bold political action will be required if substantive progress will be made in alleviating poverty.

Many reasons for worsening situation of homelessness in the country have been reported but none has gathered as much support as poverty. Poverty alone accounts for major increase in homeless households while other possible reasons include loss of job, eroding job opportunities, lack of public assistance and lack of affordable housing facilities. Despite these being powerful reasons, they are all linked to one major reason i.e. poverty.

This review is formulated with scholarly sources and references based off of poverty in America. This disclosure is approached with a value free sociological approach, and it will give insight on the social causes of poverty and the effects it has on America. Poverty is a very controversial topic. Many will assume that people living in poverty are lazy, made bad life decisions, or that they are solely the reason for their predicament however, people living in poverty would argue that their are deeper issues for it. Poverty will be deeply explained and researched from both perspectives