Essay about The Effects of Homelessness on Children

Homelessness has been a prevalent and contentious topic since its public emergence in the 1980’s. In fact, according to the most recent estimates, on any given night in the United States, there are roughly 645,000 people residing in homeless shelters or unsheltered street locations (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2011). And based on a local study done by the Mental Health Unit at the Houston Police Department in 2011, Houston has the largest homeless population in Texas and the eighth largest in the United States. While many great efforts have been put forth to aid the homeless population in Houston, “the public health epidemiology task of quantifying and tracking child and family homelessness over time has been complicated…by increasing rates of…shortages [in] affordable housing” (Grant et al., 2013), and restrictions on temporary encampments (Loftus-Ferren, 2013). In order to successfully reduce, prevent and combat homelessness, more policies must be put in place to create sustainable, affordable housing for homeless families and to modify current laws that harm homeless individuals.

“The National Center on Family Homelessness currently estimates that as many as fifty U. S. children (1.5 million) are homeless or “precariously housed” in temporary quarters such as motels and shelters” (Cohen, 2009). Today’s economic crisis is not helping this growing number of families that are being relocated as home foreclosures and loss of jobs add to the overwhelming number of homeless

     To be homeless is to not have a home or a permanent place of residence. Nationwide, there is estimated to be 3.5 million people that are homeless, and roughly 1.35 million of them are children. It is shown that homeless rates, which are the number of sheltered beds in a city divided by the cities population, have tripled since the 1980’s (National Coalition for Homeless, 2014). Worldwide, it is estimated that 100 million children live and work on the streets. Homeless children are more at risk than anyone else, and are among the fastest growing age groups of homelessness. Single women with children represent the fastest growing group of homeless, accounting for about 40% of the people that are becoming

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

Being homeless presents many challenges for youth that they normally live day to day, unable to develop plans for forming a productive life structure. Since many homeless youth don’t have money so they start begging or selling drugs or start prostituting to earn money to cover their basic needs. The basic problem of homelessness is the human need for personal shelter,

The common profile of a homeless family is headed by a single mother, in her 20’s with an average of two children, of which one or both are under the age of six. Homeless mothers tend to be poorly educated, unemployed, and lacking the skills necessary to become employed. There is an equal representation of Caucasian (47%) and African American (47%) homeless mothers. These women commonly described their lives as ““… a remarkably constant stream of distressing and spirit-breaking encounters, beginning in early childhood …” including experiencing physical and/or sexual abuse, constant crisis, stress from persistent poverty, violence in the family and community, and isolation. Most of these women grew up homeless and spent their childhood in foster care making them distrustful of the system.

The cost of housing is on the rise and many become homeless because they that are not making enough money to afford the cost of housing. The cost of health care and insurance has risen dramatically over the past years. For families living low or middle incomes that can be devastating. Families or individuals that lack health insurance, a sudden illness, chronic disease or accident can be financially devastating. Many people don’t understand the problems homeless families are facing and most families are homeless because of finical situations or because

Unemployment and lack of education plays a major role in these individual homeless people’s lives. With unemployment and high school dropout rates rising, homelessness cannot be prevented. Kids are taught from a young age to stay in school because the ones that dropout around high school is more than likely to become homeless. High school dropouts are likely to become homeless because they are likely to get kicked out of their dysfunctional home, or possibly run away from home feeling as if they are not good enough for the family. Dropouts will find it difficult to preserve a job, most will turn to drugs, becoming an addict, only hoping that it will make things better, really just increasing the rate of poverty and homelessness.

The National Health Care for the Homeless project showed that children up to twelve years of age that are homeless, are twice as likely to come down with an ear or upper respiratory infection. They are three times as likely to have a gastrointestinal problem and four times as likely to have a skin problem and ten times more likely to have bad teeth. For children thirteen to nineteen there

Could you imagine yourself and your family homeless? Living out on the street not knowing when and where are you going to get your next meal or where are you going to sleep for the night if the homeless shelter is full for the night. Being homeless can be a scary and frighten thing to go through especially as a child because you are around people who you nothing about, it’s dangerous, unhealthy, and unsanitary. This is a very important issue to me because this issue really affects the kids because it can affect their schooling cause them to fail or eventually drop out, could have behavioral health problems, and they could probably get separated from their families which is very dangerous. According to The National Alliance to End Homelessness

In Judy Daniels’ article entitled "Humanistic Interventions for Homeless Students: Identifying and Reducing Barriers to Their Personal Development," the author is successful in describing real-life examples of the effects of homelessness on school-aged children. She starts out with the story of Angie, a high school student who lives in a tent with her mother and two siblings. After being caught for fighting with her classmates, Angie is sent to the counselor’s office where she confesses her frustration with her current living situation.

The website article, Homeless Families with Children, is written for a general audience. The article does not contain complicated sentence structure or unfamiliar jargon that would make it difficult for the average person to read (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). This article is a secondary source, because the article’s discussion is supported by statistics and research

A study conducted in New York City by Park and colleagues (2004) found that children who had been homeless were at a heightened risk of being enrolled in Children Welfare Services. The researchers found that homeless youths had an 18% chance of needing Children Welfare Services intervention compared to 3 to 8 % chance for children who had a similar economic situation, who were not homeless. The researchers believed there were three reasons for this increased risk, including the additional strain felt in the family, the decrease in stability and the concept that the homeless families were under more “scrutiny” and thus more likely to be investigated (Park, et al.,

When a child comes from a rough or unstable home life, their overall development is affected. But what happens when a child doesn’t come from any home life at all? Homelessness is an increasing problem in America, and can really take a toll on families, as well as children. In January 2014, there were 578,424 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States. Of that number, 216,197 are people in families ¹. Homelessness can occur due to several different reasons: Divorce, neglect, job loss etc. “The National Center on Family Homelessness reports that more than 1.6 million children - or one in 45 children – were homeless annually in America between 2006 and 2010. It is

Homelessness is a continuing growing problem, with more and more not just adults but children forced to live on the streets. Homeless people are humans just like us. Being homeless, you