The Leading Cause Of Homelessness In The United States

As proclaimed by The National Coalition for the Homeless, “Serious mental illnesses disrupt people’s ability to carry out essential aspects of daily life, such as self-care and household management.” Those suffering from mental illnesses are prevented from properly carrying out the intrinsic skills of livelihood. A mental illness may prevent one from possessing the ability to get a job, eat, earning wherewithal, and perform the multitudinous imperative skills entailed for survival. The preventions of mental illness undeniably can cause one to become

Homelessness is often accompanied by many other problems such as mental disorders, substance abuse issues, isolation from family and friends, and poor general health. Often time’s people that suffer from homelessness experience a lower quality of life than those who have a place to call home.

S., Shtasel, D., & Bassuk, E. L., 2014). Psychiatric problems and homelessness is being caused very much by a lack of social support that is given to them, as well as negative social relationships, and the events in their lives that cause stress (Keuroghlian, A. S., Shtasel, D., & Bassuk, E. L., 2014).

Although surveys have been conducted defending that mental illness does cause homelessness. There are several arguments that personal disabilities such as mental illness, alcoholism, drug abuse and physical or mental handicaps are not the primary causes of homelessness. While these conditions make people more vulnerable to

Homelessness in the United States is an area of concern for providers, government officials, policy professionals, and society at large. An estimated 1.6 million unduplicated persons use transitional housing or emergency shelters every year. Of these people, approximately 1/3 are members of households with children, a nine percent increase since 2007. A study done by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty stated that approximately 3.5 million people, 1.35 million of them children, are likely to experience homelessness in a given year (National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty, 2007). With 2007 as a benchmark, the data from the report showed a 6.8 percent decline in homelessness among individuals, a 3.7 percent decline of homeless families, a

Imagine a man on the streets, who society has forgotten. This man emits the smell of garbage; he has not bathed in months. This man sits quietly mumbling to himself. To the outer world he is just one of the many homeless, but little does society know that this man has a mental illness as well. Homelessness and mental illness are linked. These two happenings have similar beginnings. Homelessness is influenced by drug and alcohol disuse, being homeless at a young age, money problems, and trauma symptoms. Mental illness is caused by many of the same things, but it can also happen at birth. The effects that each entity has on a person are comparable. Rehabilitation is a necessary process if a victim of homelessness and or mental illness wants

Homeless people with severe mental illnesses account for 20 to 25% of the homeless population. That is the third largest cause for homelessness in the United States. Many of this homeless population do not know, or have never dealt with living “normally.” They don’t know how to cope with managing their schedules, or even maintaining their hygiene. They also misinterpret guidance from their families, friends, and social workers, which can lead to lashing out. This causes them to have to live on the streets, surviving off of what they can find, or off of what money they can panhandle.

“While they make up a small share of the homeless population, they are disproportionately costly to society: They consume nearly 60 percent of the resources spent on emergency and transitional shelter for adults, and they occupy hospitals and jails at high rates.” (Culhane, 2010) Additionally, this small population is very visible and thus creates the perception that most homeless are mentally unstable.

According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors, only 16% of the single adult homeless population suffer from some form of mental illness and according to the National Coalition to the Homeless, The increasingness of homelessness over that past two decades can not be explained by addiction alone

One of the leading contributing factors in homelessness is mental illness. In many cases, before people become homeless, a mental illness disorder has occurred, which might result in loss of employment. In the United States, between 20 and 25 percent of homeless people are suffering from mental illness (Quigley). Mental illness was the cause of David Pirtle from Phoenix, Arizona, becoming homeless. He was working as a restaurant manager before he began to suffer from schizophrenia disorder. Because of his disorder, he was unable to retain a job. For over a year, Pirtle lived on the streets in Washington, DC. To survive everyday life he resorted to shoplifting among other things. Ultimately, he says that shoplifting led to his arrest and placement in a

According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, approximately 564,708 people were homeless on a single night in January of 2015 in the United States (“The State of Homelessness in 2016”). It is estimated that 250,000 people who suffer from Mental Health illnesses are homeless (Torrey). Providing affordable housing, and access to mental health services for the homeless population are essential components to end the homeless epidemic.

The problems of homelessness and mental illness are inextricably intertwined. One way that mental illness impacts people's lives is that it oftentimes renders them unable to carry out the functions of daily life, such as keeping a job, paying their bills, and managing a household. In addition to disrupting the events of daily life, mental illness "may also prevent people from forming and maintaining stable relationships or cause people to misinterpret others' guidance and react irrationally" (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2009). What this means is that a population that is already vulnerable because of an inability to consistently manage self-care lacks the same safety net as much of the rest of society.

In the complex society of this day and age, homelessness is an ever growing epidemic; People can become homeless for many reasons: losing a job, addiction to drugs and mental illness. People drive or walk past a homeless person every day without thinking ever about the predicament of that individual or they may even unintentionally turn their heads the other way in repulsion. Homelessness can be defined as an individual or a family whose has a main nighttime dwelling that is a public or private place not designed for or normally used as a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings, including a car, park, abandoned building, bus or train station, airport, or camping ground, doorway or alley sidewalk. Any given night in Portland there can be upwards of 4000 people sleeping on the streets in homeless camps, shelters, or under the bridges, this report looks at the direct correlation between homelessness, the disease of drug addiction, and mental illness, And will try to address ways to help decrease and prevent it from increasing.

Using the symptoms of the previously described mental health diagnoses, this study intends to discover a correlation between having mental health problems and homelessness in hopes of understanding the affects it is having on this population. The hypothesis is that there will be a strong correlation between the independent variable of mental health symptomatology and the dependent variable of being homeless, have been homeless previously, or on the verge of becoming

Understanding how both individual and structural factors contribute to and sustain homelessness is a critical factor in successfully addressing homelessness. All to often service providers blame homeless individuals for the circumstances they are in, making assumptions that substance abuse or other irresponsible behaviors have caused the problems leading to the individual to become homeless. Hoffman and Coffey (2008) suggest, “the perpetuation of homelessness is not internal to the homeless individual as many claim, but rather may be embedded in the service industry itself, which subjects both clients and providers to bureaucratic forms of authority and experiences of disrespect.” While not all homeless people suffer from mental illness or substance abuse, all of