Shanty Town

Often it is housing, that absorbs high proportion of income that can cause Americans to become homeless. Twelve million homeowners and renters pay more that fifty percent of their annual earnings for housing. This percentage is astonishing high for the county who has the best weapon system in the world. Although, several programs were developed such as the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to stabilized homelessness, America should not have a large amount of homeless people, we should take care of our own people. According to National Coalition for the Homeless (“In a survey of 24 cities, people remain homeless an average of seven months, and 87% of cities reported that the length of time people are homeless has increased in recent years (U.S. Conference of Mayors, 2005)”). Seeing children and families living in shelters should not be permitted, in this great nation. Instead of interfering with other countries well being, America should focus on its own citizens. Investing in increasing developing affordable programs would prevent people from becoming homeless, and be in

Homelessness is one of the oldest problems that exist, fast forward almost 40 years since it’s been recognized as one and still there has been no avail to finding a real solution. The definition of homelessness under the McKinney-Vento Homelessness Assistance Act is defined as an individual: “who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence; and a person who has a nighttime residence that is supervised publicly or privately operated shelter, and c) an institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized, or a private or public place not designed for, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings.”

Communities often make more of an effort to chase out or hide the homeless rather than take steps that might eliminate the causes of homelessness. Laws usually include prohibiting loitering in public areas such as parks and train stations. Police officers sometimes take aggressive actions against homeless individuals to enforce homeless regulations (“Dealing With” 8-9). Communities that try to regulate the homeless have a negative impact on public support for rehabilitation programs. Laws that target the homeless support the view that it is not homelessness that is the problem but the people who are affected by it. Money that could be used to fund homeless agencies is instead used to bring homeless citizens to

When you see the homeless what do you think about? Do you see them and feel disgust or are you someone who wonders how and why they are where they are, or maybe, you are one of the few who want to help and who are able to. In the U.S., more than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year and that number is growing. They are families with little children, people who are trying to escape domestic violence, people with mental illness, veterans who have served our country, and many more. From what I read in Jonathan Kozol’s “Untouchables” city officials in various places are only coming up with short term solutions, that aren’t helping the homeless. City officials are just trying to get rid of the homeless from their cities or area. I think it’s time that more individuals and groups, really gets involved and figure out a way to help those who are already homeless, and stop future people from becoming homeless. We have to come up with ways to help the homeless readjust and get back into the world.

On any single night in America, there are 610,042 people without a home (SIRS). Just think about how much space that would take up in prisons for people who are not causing a crime but are just without a home.Criminalization of homelessness is becoming a popular and widespread topic throughout the US. States all over America are beginning to make laws that prevent homeless people from living in public spaces. Homelessness may be temporary, chronic, or perpetual. The growth of homelessness within and outside of cities puts a new strain on shelters and has led to an increase in panhandling and loitering. Some people think these aspects of homelessness should be criminalized. Those who disagree say criminalization would only worsen the problem

The government needs to provide more support and police hours to these types of neighbour hoods. The only reason the crime rates are up is due to the lack of cops in that area. Furthermore, the prices of houses have been increasing in Canada rapidly. To find a suitable place to live which is affordable is becoming really rare due to the increase in real estate. As the prices rise, the people who are not as fortunate as the rest of us are forced to live in deprived areas. This will cause the upbringing of children to be difficult which might ultimately lead to poverty. Thus, through providing funding for affordable and appropriate housing, Canada can start to diminish the homeless population.

Homelessness in America has gone un-noticed for so long. For America to be the “land of opportunity” there is a large amount of people who have been deprived of what they were promised. There is so much this country offers, but at the same time there are so many qualifications. Not everyone can meet these standards that are sometimes required. This results in homelessness and poverty. Homelessness has become a hidden aspect in life. The government wants people to continue seeing America’s beauty. In order for that to be successful they would have to get rid of the flaws.

The fact that there’s laws out there for being homeless is just pitiful and low. Every human has rights and just because he or she is homeless does not mean you can take away their rights. Homeless people should not be criminalized because they have nowhere to go. Yes there are homeless shelters but not all homeless shelters are open for them to stay in. Read into things about homeless shelters and go there. There not as amazing as there cut out to be. Some homeless people say they would rather go back to the streets than to stay at homeless shelters. If one were to look in some of these homeless shelters today they would think the same. Some of them are just disgusting and downright horrible. Why do people expect someone to actually sleep in a place where it is not sanitary.

Imagine this, a family of four is trying to survive the night. They are lying on the ground in bitter temperatures with only a cardboard box and a blanket to shield themselves from the harsh nights that they are forced to endure. Men, women, and children wait for morning when the doors of the food shelter will finally open, providing many with their meal of the day. This is the setting for hundreds of families in the Phoenix area. It can happen to anyone, anytime. Sometimes it’s a result of circumstances beyond our control- job loss, eviction, domestic violence, mental illness, medical bills. Homelessness is a growing problem and I have a proposition to stop it. We must give homeless people permanent housing with no strings attached.

Why should we care about homeless people? That’s the kind of attitude you can witness that people have towards the homeless. Homelessness is a pretty common occurrence which might be a reason for people’s indifference towards it. People are unaware of the circumstances surrounding the homeless, which can lead them to believe their situation is like that because of their own personal choice. That is not entirely true and it’s an issue that should be addressed properly. Everyone should have the right to a stable place to live in that meets a their needs. Society’s attitude towards the homeless needs to change. They need to realize how serious being homeless is and look for ways to end it, such as taking an initiative and volunteering and or donating to shelters.

When it comes to addressing homelessness, one of the biggest obstacles faced by many communities has to do with the providing of homeless support services (HSS).” (https://slohomeless.wordpress.com/2010/02/23/why-do-some-people-object-to-helping-the-homeless/) Many people say the issue needs to be “dealt’ with, but when it comes to building a shelter, the community often opposed the idea. “There are numerous reasons why some folks in any given community are against expanding services – or even providing any type of HSS altogether.” Some of the most common objections are, Not In My Backyard (NIMBY),”These folks will complain bitterly that something needs to be done about the homeless...They go to great lengths to make themselves appear as though they are not uncaring. Yet, these same folks are the ones who object the loudest…” Then there are the people who say, “It cost to much.” Yes I understand that it needs a lot of money to make the shelters but, it would help with getting the homeless off the streets and maybe they could get cleaned up and find a job. One of the last common ones is , “ Providing services will draw more homeless to the community.” That’s true but only for an extent. Yes Iknow it will bring the homeless to the community but think of all the homeless Veterans we could save. Think of the people who chose to serve for our country and we just want them to willow away on the

Homelessness is a serious problem in our society. Every night in our nation thousands of people are on the streets. This type of behavior is considered deviant because it does not reflect the norms and values of our society. In many cases the homeless people in our country are treated as total outcasts. Many of these people have severe mental disorders. Some are victims of an economy that has failed them. One may ask how such harsh situations exist in such an advanced society. With all the money and programs created to help people it seems ridiculous that this behavior exists. In a society where people have so much how is it possible that there are still people that have so little. The homeless are humans, no different than anyone else.

The controversial issue of the homeless in New York has been an ongoing battle for several years. Many leaders like Andrew Cuomo have come to the conclusion that obligating homeless people into shelters should be enforced, yet others oppose the idea. They believe such harsh actions shouldn 't be taken. Journalist like Hinckley, who wrote "Can New York Force Homeless People into Shelters?" and Marc Santo, who wrote "Keep New York 's homeless off the streets!" have written articles with fact based information with details on the homeless living conditions. In my opinion, such actions shouldn 't occur. The homeless in New York have the right to choose their living conditions, therefore they shouldn 't be obligated to be put in shelters.

Lastly, one more thing the government can do to stop homeless from living on the streets is to open a place at night for them to just stay. Opening a place for homeless to come to at nights is a great thing to do. When winter months comes around, the days are going to be too cold for people to live out on the streets. Nobody can live out on the streets when the temperature is going to be below zero or close to zero. The government should start doing some of these ideas because one day it might be them that is homeless and don’t have any place to

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.