The Cost Of Homelessness In The United States

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,

Homelessness in the United States is a serious problem that can be helped by giving homeless people opportunities to thrive in better conditions and/or communities. Although getting them off the streets is a huge step in the right direction, other actions need to be taken. Making sure they have somebody in their corner is a huge step in that process. There are 1,750,000 homeless people on the streets at this very moment. 1 in 30 children in the US, 40% of the homeless population are also Veterans. Some people wonder how someone even becomes homeless, there are multiple reasons, such as physical or mental impairments, living in poverty, and tragic life occurrences.

Homelessness is a social problem that is everywhere. When driving a car or walking down the street, sooner or later, there will be a homeless person. The exact number of homeless in America is difficult to obtain, but it is estimated that 2.3 to 3.5 million people nationwide will experience homelessness every year (Thompson. p. 2). Why are they homeless? While the causes of homelessness vary, there are a few reasons which are always present. Learning some of these reasons can help give a better understanding of the homeless situation. Homelessness is a social problem in America caused by financial difficulties, domestic violence, and substance abuse.

Homeless as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an individual who lacks housing, including those whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provides temporary living accommodations, they are a person with out permanent housing, who may live on the streets, in a shelter, abandoned building, or other unstable situations (HHS). It is important for communities throughout the United States to develop a system that identifies the number of homeless around them. This information is valuable to many government and private agencies, it enables them to acquire, and maintain needed resources and money in order to best serve their homeless populations. There are different ways that communities attempt to count their homeless population, shelters, feeding centers and others who provide resources are able to take count of how many they serve each day, but unfortunately it can be hard to track those who do not come on a returning basis. The US Census Bureau every 10 years also conducts a Service-Based Enumeration (SEB) to help count the population In the study published by the National

According to a study done by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, in America alone, more than 3.5 million people, including 1.35 million children, experience homelessness yearly (nationalhomeless.org). Of that 3.5 million, 35% are families with children (studentsagainsthunger.org). Worldwide, 100 million people are homeless yearly (homelessworldcup.org). These people are forced to sleep in parks, under bridges, abandoned buildings, shelters, and sometimes cars if available. There are approximately 1.7 million homeless teens in the US and 1 of 7 of every teen are runaways (dosomething.org). More than half of these teens will use drugs or alcohol to self medicate through their traumatic experience. Unfortunately, 5,000 of these teens and young adults die yearly because of assault or illness on the streets (dosomething.org). In most cases, homelessness is temporary, but is still a problem encountered by many. Homelessness and poverty are increasing epidemics around the world, striking millions of people every age, ethnicity, and religion.

Homelessness is a problem that happens in many different countries around the world. Definitions of homelessness are defined in different meanings by different people. However, the Stewart B. McKinney Act defines a homeless person as “ one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accommodations for human beings” (McNamara 1025). It is impossible to find out exactly the number of homeless; however, the researchers can do a study to estimate that number. Based on different statistics from different researchers, the homeless population in America has been increasing as “an alarming rate” (Markos and Lima).

During the Great Depression, millions of Americans were unemployed which was a huge issue. Unemployment led to homelessness and being poor. Millions of people were unemployed and struggling to find any jobs (Hayes). As the Great Depression got worse and worse, the number of hiring jobs decreased and less jobs were available. Companies were “Firing and not hiring” so many Americans were homeless and unable to make money to support their struggling families (Hayes). The loss of jobs did an incredible amount of damage to the Americans living during this horrific time.

The purpose of this assignment is to research and explain the aspects of a particular social issue. I will begin by providing a brief history of the subject. I will elaborate on the causes and factors of those who are influenced. Additionally, I will explain the demographics and geographical locations in which the problem most commonly affects. In this assignment, I will further discuss a few of the operations that are in place to accommodate those in need of assistance. Finally, I will express a consideration that offers an alternative solution to ending or preventing the matter.

Whose responsibility is it to help the homeless in the United States? I believe that it is everyone’s responsibility. As of January 2015 the homeless count in America was 564,708 people (Fluit, 2015). Even though this is a decline in homeless in America this is still unacceptable. As Americans we need to do all that we can to decrease these numbers. There is so much we could do that would go a long way to help our homeless, like donating time or money to the proper organizations.

The thought of being homeless is a terrifying to anyone, but sadly for many it is a reality. I could never imagine not knowing where I was going to sleep for the night, especially not as a teenager. Teenage years are a struggle for everyone then adding homelessness into it gives an entirely different set of issues for someone to be presented with.

The topic I have decided to focus Genius Hour on is how to solve the problem of homelessness in the United States. More than 3.5 million people experience homelessness each year. And in 2013, there was a high of 2.5 million homeless children. But why should people care? People should care because if they ever went into foreclosure, they could be secure in knowing that they would still have a place to stay in and would not be forced to go on the streets. A solution to eliminating homelessness would be incorporating some socialism factors of government into our federal government. I consider this a sensible solution because our federal government has a double security system that prevents our government

In the United States of America where it is considered as one of the wealthiest countries in the world, many people are still experiencing homelessness. In the year 2015, 564,708 people were recorded to be homeless in just one night (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2016). On the other hand, in the year 2014, there were 578,424 homeless people. Of that number, 216,197 were family members, and 362,163 were individuals. 15 percent of that number was homeless because of having chronic disabilities, while 9 percent were veterans.

Just by walking down the streets of Portland, it is obvious from the roadside tents, cardboard signs begging for spare change and shopping carts overflowing with possessions that the housing crisis in America is not going to resolve itself. For hundreds of years, homelessness has been a frowned upon and ignored issue by those who have never experienced it. Overlooking and ignoring homelessness has not done anything to help the growing issue, but allowed it to continue for even longer. In the article “Homelessness” on Opposing Viewpoints.com, it explains how the homeless face discrimination and treated as outcasts, “During the colonial period, homelessness was caused by varying economic and social factors; however, this condition was widely

Our proposed innovation will decrease the costs of healthcare for the homeless population in the inner city that suffer from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Our proposed innovation is an internal capnography chip. The chip sends a signal to the local health department that will be able to monitor the respiratory, circulatory, and metabolic status of homeless individuals. The internal chip will have a global positioning system (GPS) to locate the patient when the capnography is showing increased respiratory distress.

For instance, the Healthcare for the Homeless clinic provides an access to wide-ranging health care services. According to officials at the clinic, more than ten thousand homeless people, including men, women, and children are cared for by this clinic every year. Furthermore, the Healthcare for the Homeless clinic also provides a service for alcohol and drug rehabilitation treatments. It perceived to be very effective measures that should directly be adopted in our country. Because majority of homeless people in our country are considered to be alcohol