In 1994, I began working with the formerly homeless population in Dignity Housing, a non-profit organization located in the West Mount Airy section of Philadelphia, PA. Dignity Housing has assisted hundreds of families by providing permanent housing, life skills building, educational instructions, and many more life-sustaining fundamentals. After Dignity Housing, I went on to serve the homeless population through various other non-profit organizations experiencing the same stories of despair laden with poor parental guidance, drugs and alcohol, physical, mental and sexual abuse, poverty, and criminal behaviors.
Over the years, residences have shared their plight of homelessness with me. Many residences have given various reasons as to why
Homelessness is an issue in American society today that affects anywhere from 800,000 to 3.5 million people. There are a substantial amount of people that are without shelter, food, or employment, and there are numerous other people affected by poverty and homelessness. People living in nearly every city in the United States are affected by homelessness due to the large amounts of homeless individuals living on the streets and begging for money, food, and other necessities. The issue of homelessness has been a constant problem since the conquering of the New World, and soup kitchens and homeless shelters have not been able to fully end homelessness. Especially today, with a lack of affordable housing and high unemployment rates, homelessness is prevalent.
In the United States the homeless population continues to grow rapidly. Homelessness has been a public health issue for many decades. Often times these individuals feel as though society has turned a blind eye to them. This at risk population is seen by society as lazy or chose to live a life on the streets, but if one would examine this population closely would see that there is more to this at risk population than what society has labeled them as. The forces, which affect homelessness, are multifaceted. Social forces such as family breakdown, addictions, and mental illnesses are in combined with structural forces such as lack of low-cost housing, insufficient health services, and poor economic conditions. Many would
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,
The purpose of this paper is to bring acknowledgement to the homeless population in Philadelphia. Research will be provided from scholarly journals as well as published, credible websites. We will explore the overall statistics in the United States but will have a focus on the city of Philadelphia. The homeless population is large and its evident there is an issue with housing and mental illnesses. While there are programs to assist, the homeless population outnumbers the resources available here in Philadelphia. This paper will explore the different types of people impacted such as families, youth, veterans and the elderly. This paper will explain and acknowledge that Philadelphia doesn’t provide enough support to assist the homeless. This paper will focus on the resources and support of local services and but also bring attention to the lack thereof.
Every homeless person has their own story for why they don’t have a home or income whether it is they immigrated to a new country, a disability, or they lost their job. Whatever the situation is, they all have their unique story. We shouldn’t be quick to judge or assume it was their decision. Sometimes we aren’t able to control a situation and for some people they are forced to
The problem of homelessness in American has gone pretty much unsolved since the turn of the 20th century or at least since the Great Depression and lately it seems that homelessness has become a desperate cycle often repeated for some who fail to make their way back from losing everything. This is especially true, this 21st century cycle of struggling to get back on one’s feet and then getting knocked down again before gaining any permanence, of those with special needs and conditions accompanying their homelessness like alcohol and substance abuse, a criminal record, a mental disorder or physical or learning disability – and being HIV positive. While homelessness overall remains a major challenge in Baltimore City and cities across the US, much has been done over the last couple decades to address these special needs populations – housing those infected with HIV/AIDS having been a major challenge mostly overcome.
Among general population, homelessness has been a social, economic, and public health concern in the U.S. for at least three decades.
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
At the time of the article, on any given night, 5500 persons were homeless in King County on any given night; 1300 on the street and 4200 in transitional housing (www.kingcounty.gov). According to the Committee to End Homelessness’s 2010 estimates, the homeless population in King County hovers around 8000 nightly in the cities and rural areas. Nearly 3000 of these meet the federal criteria for habitual homeless. Even more startling is the fact that close to thirty percent of the county’s homeless is mentally ill. Others are victims of domestic violence or homeless due to unemployment, substance abuse or some economic hardship. Longstanding efforts at reducing or eliminating homelessness have been geared toward policing the homeless population. This method has proven costly, inadequate and often ineffective. The prevailing mindset now is that access to housing before those suffering become chronically homeless is the only sensible and economically logical way to end homelessness. It’s a more hands on, direct approach that could provide long-term answer to homelessness (www.kingcounty.gov/homelessness).
Homeless people in Allegheny County, PA are a vulnerable population that needs addressed. Homeless populations consist of individuals, families and veterans who struggle with obtaining the basic needs of life, that many take for granted. A shortage of affordable housing, not enough income to meet basic needs and inefficient support services all contribute to homelessness in the communities (In Nies & In McEwen, 2015, p. 433). Services, help, and resources are available in this county, but getting this vulnerable subset of the population to seek this help, are difficult.
Although the numbers of homelessness in the States have decreased in the past 10 years, more than 3.5 million people each year experience homelessness, with 578,424 individuals experience homelessness each night (endhomelessness.org). Many poverty-stricken people are consistently at the risk of homelessness; there is a lack of affordable housing, many jobs provide low income, and destitute people cannot afford medical care for support. However, homelessness does not only extend to the penniless - it also affects a standard citizen. It can be a result of natural disasters, family death, unemployment, domestic violence, divorce, family affairs, and mental disabilities (homeaid.org). The challenge for America is to reduce the number of those who continue to experience homelessness drastically by rehabilitating the homeless back to normal, ordinary lives. Homeless or emergency shelters and temporary homes allow the homeless to seize a chance at economic stability and reorganize their current situation. Many organizations such as Volunteers of America and Salvation Army were formed to address problems with homelessness in our society; their mission is to provide services like job and social skill training for the homeless in order to support their rehabilitation. Even with everything that is being done, many homeless refuse to associate themselves with outside help. With this issue at hand, homelessness will always remain an issue in America.
It is nice that you have been working for homeless. In 2016, the government plays an important role in homeless projects. The National Coalition for the Homeless is a “national network of people who are currently experiencing or who have experienced homelessness, activists and advocates, community-based and faith-based service providers, and others committed to a single mission: To prevent and end homelessness while ensuring the immediate needs of those experiencing homelessness are met and their civil rights protected” (National Homeless.org, 2014). The NCH has been established for more than 30 years. The association ensures that men, women, children and families have the opportunity to a shelter as needed (National Homeless.org,
Participating in the overnight shelter at the UU Fellowship of San Luis Obispo, was an eye opening experience. When people think of homeless people, right away they think of the stereotypical description of a homeless person, such as dirty, on drugs, or mentally ill. I was one of those people who had a stereotypical picture in my mind, but participating in this shelter changed my perceptive on the description of homeless.
The reasons for homelessness are varied not forgetting that international laws for housing advocate for adequate housing. In fact, more than 40 countries campaign for proper housing in their constitution. The effects of homelessness are many and range from health factors to personal
Prior to Simpson Housing, I was vaguely familiar with the issue of homelessness. I only knew the basis of it, but never fully understood it. There are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes about the homeless and I’ve