Pros And Cons Of Being Homeless

     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

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,

Homelessness exists as a prominent issue that plagues society in various ways. It brings about hardship and controversy as individuals struggle to survive on a daily basis. Additionally, this complication tears families apart and ostracizes individuals from a society where they once belonged. A specific problem regarding homelessness consists of lack of interest from bystanders; some of these spectators refuse to even acknowledge homeless individuals sitting at their feet. As homeless people live their lives on street-corners, the more fortunate members of society choose to engulf themselves in their personal problems alone. Displayed by their clothing and accessories, most of these individuals possess the ability to help in some way;

Homelessness seems to constantly trigger debates among our society. It has since caused a complex social problem between U.S. citizens and multiple cities worldwide. Cities across the nation have passed a law that criminalizes the act of feeding the homeless, has restricted simple acts of compassion, and have required the purchase of permits to utilize public areas. According to Robbie Couch,” The outlet reports that, incredibly, at least 33 municipal bans on publicly handing out food have been enacted across the U.S. between January 2013 and April 2014, reflecting a sharp increase in communities with such restrictions…. This past February, Columbia S.C., began requiring groups of 25 people or more to purchase permits allowing them to utilize the city’s parks.” I know many will probably agree and say something along the lines of “By restricting the feeding of the homeless, it would motivate more homeless individual to get off the streets”. Houston Mayor Annise Parker stated, “Making it easier for someone to stay on the street is not humane”. Feeding bans are allowing an increase in chronic hunger, allowing stereotypes that are ill-treating those who are experiencing homelessness and allowing homeless individual’s mental, physical, and emotional health to weaken as time progresses.

There are approximately 11,448 people, composed of men, women, and children, who fall in the homeless category in the state of North Carolina. Of that 11,448, 1,303 are families with small children. 2,014 of those people live in the city of Charlotte, North Carolina, which makes up 20% of the total homeless population. 1 out of 5 homeless children live within 8 miles of uptown Charlotte (urbanministrycenter.org). Although there are many programs and services that are offered to homeless people, there are all sorts of stipulations that come with these services. Chronic Homelessness is one of the biggest issues in this country and as a state, North Carolina is doing all that it can to put an end to this tragedy.

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.

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.

It would seem as if a homeless person could get a job, then they can stop begging and find a place to stay. I’m sure we have all thought this to ourselves or said this to someone else. I have looked at the lives of people living on the street and have asked, “why do they choose to be homeless, just get a job”. There are many assumptions about homeless people. The most common one is that all of them are too lazy to work. Now if we really stop to think about their condition, we will see many things that could lead someone to be homeless. Some are forced by circumstances. Homelessness can happen to anyone. I image that all homeless people would rather choose to have a good night’s rest, a warm place to be when its cold outside, and food to eat daily than to be on the street. I admit to being guilty of thinking that all homeless people were just too lazy to work in the past, but with a dose of compassion, I see them with new eyes. All homeless people are not lazy. I cannot imagine how it would be to live one day without the comfort of my warm and cozy house. It is our job to extend courtesy to everyone, those with jobs and those without.

At some point in one’s life, a person has seen or heard of an individual who lives on the streets. An individual who lives on the streets and holds a sign that says they need money for food is considered homeless. Sadly, these individuals are everywhere and the amount of people currently homeless in the United States is 564,708 according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. However, in this nation, everyone has the ability to decrease this massive number. Necessary assistance from agencies, local funding, churches, and volunteers will place these homeless individuals in permanent housing. With this assistance, the number of homeless individuals will begin to decrease.

Homelessness can happen to anyone, you can be the richest person in the world today and lose it all tomorrow and be out in the streets without knowing what to do. According to Greg Owen and Michelle Decker Gerrad, one of the reasons people are homeless in Minnesota is due to recession. They stated, “In the year 2000, when the U.S. economy was at a high point, nearly a quarter of all adults who were homeless in our state had full-time jobs. The 2012 survey shows us that only 8 percent of those who are homeless today have full-time jobs” this survey shows that not all homeless people are poor it’s just they cannot find affordable housing because of the economy. This is where the government comes in and a social worker needs to work with each

Homelessness is an unfortunate epidemic that has plagued communities across the United States for decades. Although a homeless population has existed in our society throughout history, this social issue came to a head only a few decades ago in the early 1980’s. What defines homelessness varies from source to source, however a concise definition, stated by the McKinney-Vento Act, specifies that a homeless individual is typically one that lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night time residence (McKinney-Vento Act, 2001). Approximately 3.5 million people experience homelessness at some point each year in the United States. The homeless population is presently declining across the country. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reported a seventeen percent decrease in the homeless population between the years 2005 and 2012. However this trend is really only a mirage, that is certain to end and revert itself in the opposite direction. The increasing population, scarce resources and the surging number of individuals living at or below the poverty line indicate that the number of people without adequate shelter will eventually increase.

Many homeless people have various problems which include money, domestic violence or mental illness and it is not easy for them to change their lifestyle and find a job. Do you know how many homeless people are living in Toronto? According to the homeless hub, they estimated put the number of homeless in the city at about 5,219 in 2013 (“Popluation”, 2013). Homeless need help getting off the streets but are not able to do it by themselves. People should not just give the homeless poor treatment and keep on walking by like nothing is wrong. In order to reduce the homeless problem, we should help them efficiently to solve this problem which can allow the government to help them in many ways.

Despite the fact there are many homeless people who are normally classified by their mental illness or substance abuse. It has many individuals in society identifying them as a hopeless person, traumatized by their own past or current situation. According to: Nan Roman, “It’s intuitive, in a way. People do better when they have stability.” However, not all circumstances can be judged by what the population is due to the fact, that everyone has a story to tell based on one's past experience of financial hardship. Therefore, the homeless people need to be considered by; governmental funding, policies, and housing first.

When you think homeless what do you think? Some of you will probably will think dirty, gross, uncivilized. Maybe even the word ‘poverty.’ But near the Super Bowl, they want to erase the image of these things to make this event look like a treasure in history. So, workers have been trying to persuade homeless people to move to where it’s safer and point them to the direction of the shelters for them. The workers told the homeless that this is from construction, this is true, but the construction is for the Super Bowl and Super Bowl City. But the match striked the fire of curiosity was when I read the article “San Francisco nudges homeless away from Super Bowl fan village,” that studies show that employees don’t want to move the homeless from their spots and that is when I questioned why they wanted not to this.

Today I will be talking about how to help homeless people in my community and how it’s a problem today. Today every corner you look around in Detroit, Michigan there is a homeless person in need, begging for help, asking for money, looking for shelter. It’s a big problem that we are trying to fix in the city of Detroit, not just detroit but the state of Michigan. There is approximately 86,189 homeless people in Michigan. 50 percent of those homeless in Michigan are adults, and children in families, and 69 percent of most homeless families are single mothers. The average age of a homeless person is 32.7 years old and the average age of a homeless child is 7.6 years old. There is a homeless shelter/halfway house in almost every city in michigan