Summary: The Issue Of Homelessness

Homeless is taking place throughout the world. That is an issue because some people still end back on the street or never had the opportunity to get off the street. Some inviduals may still be on the street and never go the opportunity to get off the street. Each inviduals have their own story of how they became homeless. Some inviduals may have ended up homeless due to unemployment, house caught on fire, was staying with a family member who later passed away, never had money save in case of a emergency and the list goes on. The issue that relate to housing for the homeless is that it is not enough space for everyone. The programs that is available tend to be overcrowded due to so many people being homeless with nowhere to go. Another issue with housing for the homeless is the environment in some programs. The environment can be harmful and unhealthy to an inviduals and especially a homeless child. When a child is homeless, that has a effect on them growing up as far as their mentality and their skills and ability of learning.

Currently, the rates of homelessness in America continue to drastically increase. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2012) depicted how many people are homeless in a single night in America. The findings revealed that there were approximately 633,782 people who are homeless in America or 20 out of every 10,000. Approximately 394,379 are single individuals and 239,403 are people in families with 77,157 homeless families in a single night, and approximately 162, 246 are children. Veterans are more likely to be homeless than those who are non-veterans, approximately 29 out of every 10,000 veterans are homeless. Unfortunately, 38 percent of those who are homeless are unsheltered, either living on the streets or in places that are not suitable for human inhabitation. Most states account of for less than 1% of homeless population, whereas Texas contains approximately 5.4% of America’s homeless population. In San Antonio, there are approximately 2,981 people who are homeless each day, and 1,243 are unsheltered. Through a sociological perspective, the social problems of homelessness can be analyzed through the concept of sociological imagination, the comparison of the person-blame approach and the system-blame approach, and through the analysis of one’s own community’s effort in helping those who are homeless.

Homelessness has been a problem in Hawaii, and especially Oahu, for more than two decades. The homeless have overrun the islands but it is no surprise as the circum- stances allow for it. Multiple factors contribute to the ongoing dilemma including the high cost of living, Hawaii being an island state, and the expensive housing. The prob- lems that cause homelessness are not going to go away by themselves. Although the problem is not increasing, the numbers show that it isn’t decreasing and shouldn’t be unless the state and community acts.

How often have you stepped out of your house or work and witnessed someone begging for food or money? How many times do you pull up to a stoplight or an on/off ramp to a highway and see someone that seems to be at their lowest? We all have seen this at least once in our lives but I would venture to say it has been many more times than that. Often times these individuals are homeless and searching for ways of how they are going to feed themselves or their families. Homelessness is an epidemic in the United States and it is a devastating social problem.

There are many different ethical concerns that involve homelessness as a problem in daily society. In public life, people often forget that homelessness is not a choice that many make, but instead a consequence of a culmination of events that are out of the control of the victim. The lifetime prevalence of homelessness is surprisingly high, according to an essay written by John Song called “Homelessness and Clinical Ethics,” 7.4% of all adult Americans being homeless at one point in their lives (Song 210). Homelessness is much more common than many people realize. It is nearly of epidemic sizes within the United States, with streets and shelters full of people who have no other choices.

Over half of a million people within the United States are homeless, the largest part of that group belonging to the famed and familiar city: Los Angeles. But why is it that the majority of Americans seem so unaffected by the penniless, impoverished souls harboring the areas they often visit? It was once delivered by the famed businessman and religious leader, Joseph B. Wirthlin, in an address named "Live in Thanksgiving Daily" that "The more often we the see things around us -- even the beautiful and wonderful -- the more they become invisible to us" (Wirthlin 11). The essence of Wirthlin’s wise words is that because we see certain things so often, we become desensitized and accustomed to them, leading us to acknowledge them less and less. This however, serves as a poor excuse when explaining our lack of effort in attacking and solving the social issues present in homelessness. In today’s day and age, individuals often adapt the mindset of: “Your problem, you deal with it.” But how are these human beings, who have aspirations and dreams just like you and me (that are now crushed), are supposed to just “deal” with living without a penny to their names with no possibility of finding any source of income? How are these people supposed to just “deal” with the paralyzing fear and helplessness they experience every night before they lie down on the cold, hard concrete floor of a dingy alley that they’re forced to call home for the night? Of course, they don’t. Well, more

Lakeland is a city in Polk County, Florida, United States, located between the two larger cities in central Florida those being Tampa to the west and Orlando to the east. While interventions to interrupt and end homelessness may vary across groups, ending homelessness permanently requires housing combined with the types of services supported by programs operated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This paper will address demographics for the area, identify the social issue of homelessness, and address using a social action model for community change, and the strengths and weaknesses of the model.

The current social welfare issue that I chose to explore is homelessness within Canada. First, this essay will give a brief description of homelessness. Secondly, it will describe how homelessness relates to some concepts and theories that we learned in this course Introduction to Social Welfare, it will also look at what may have happened to people facing homelessness one hundred years ago, next we will explore a possible solution to this social issue and where this fits within the political ideologies. Finally, I will give a brief explanation on whether social media is an effective tool for bringing about awareness regarding social issues.

Homelessness is a prime concern for numerous countries across the globe, including the most advanced ones. Though the population of homeless people tends to be higher in developing countries, it is still a concern in developed nations. Homelessness is a state where someone lacks regular shelter. The term includes people who do not have a home and sleep on the streets, as well as those whose basic nighttime residence is a homeless shelter or other improvised form of housing. Such people lack the capacity to acquire or maintain sufficient nighttime shelter. Individuals and family units become homeless for many reasons. Assessing these causes can help to mitigate the issue.

Most cities in the United States do not have rent control as government intervention in price setting is counteractive to capitalism. So, to address homelessness the government must increase the numbers of housing vouchers available to the poor. Opponents of free or low cost housing say that it is a bad idea because it is expensive and would increase the number of homeless families seeking help. “We must acknowledge the risk that offering housing units will increase demand and even the formation of more such households, which are often homes to children who will face toughest type of poverty and greatest economic disadvantage. In other words, the homeless family problem is actually a subset of our challenge in assisting low-income, single-parent

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.

Much literature has suggested that the root causes of homelessness in the United Kingdom are structural, individual and social factors, (Kyle, 2005, Burrows, Pleace, and Quilgars, 1996, Watson and Austerberry 1998, Ravenhill, 2008 and Dominelli, 2009) However, Bowpitt et al. (2008) suggested that a dichotomy exists between them, suggesting that there is no one reason. Instead these levels are indistinguishably interlinked; factors are neither discrete nor hierarchical (Anderson 2001), for example (Marcus 2014) argued that where a young mother may be suffering from long term health issues, for instance diabetes, and is unable to sustain employment, her inconsistent work patterns could result in loss of employment, subsequently she may have difficulties paying the rent

Homelessness results from people being below the poverty level, and being homeless is defined as “lack of a home or shelter”. Each year, more and more Americans are becoming homeless and are dying from disease and drug abuse on the streets. The number one cause for homelessness is dropping out of high school. Dropping out of high school results in little education, and loss in a diploma, which won’t get you a high paying job you want, so if you don’t have the money to survive, you could end up on the streets. The second major cause of homelessness is drug abuse.

Today homelessness is a problem in America and always has been an issue. In the United States homelessness has been documented since 1640 and has been growing rapidly since then. There are nearly 630,000 people that are homeless, that is about the size of Boston! Some people or families that become homeless are due to natural disasters such as tornados, hurricanes, and other related disasters. Some people or families also become homeless due to a loss of a family member, house fires, or getting laid off from a job. These are everyday people that once had a house to go home to every night and a warm place to sleep. Just imagine one day losing everything and having no place to sleep or call home. So many things can be done to help out:

When we were first introduced to this assignment, I was both excited and nervous. I was excited because it gave me the opportunity to step of my comfort zone. I was also excited to be able to get out into the community and practice some of the social work skills that we have learned in class. I was nervous because I knew it would be hard to hear the struggles of a single-parent experiencing homelessness. As someone who was raised by a single-parent, I also know how easy it can be to fall into homelessness. Overall, I think I was more excited about doing this assignment because I truly did want to hear the stories that single-parents experiencing homelessness wanted to tell.