The plight of homelessness is increasing expeditiously everyday. Despite the work of professional groups working together for the common goal of ridding America of this embarrassment. The economy and the housing market spiraling downward aids in this continuous social issue. Actually, homelessness is just the surface of all the different issue that lie beneath. What is homelessness? According to Chatham-Savannah Authority for the Homeless it is define as:
Resident in place not meant for human habitation
Resident in an emergency shelter
Resident in transitional or supportive housing
Residing in any of the above but spending up to 30 days in a hospital or other institution
A situation in which eviction is imminent and no subsequent
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When you study the Maslow hierarchy, a person would need the basic necessities before reaching self esteem, esteem of others, achievement, recognition, and dignity. These are the items that a homeless person lack when they don 't have the physiological needs, and safety needs; your basics such as food, water, shelter and fresh clothing. Maslow believed that anyone can achieve if their basic needs are met. When you have a home it brings about safety, a place where one can go to get away from the cares of this world, a place of refuge. Having a home protects you from the cold, rain and snow. Maslow states “Human life will never be understood unless its highest aspirations are taken into account. Growth, self-actualization, the striving toward health, the quest for identity and autonomy, the yearning for excellence (and other ways of phrasing the striving upward) must by now be accepted beyond question as a widespread and perhaps, universal human tendency.” (Maslow) Over years of research many individuals are homeless due to medical issues, mental illness, loss of employment, drug abuse, many have criminal history, and the
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.
“One diverse population that has continued to increase over the quarter of a century is composed of people who are homeless” (Baggerly & Zalaquett, 2006, p.155). Homelessness has become a growing problem in society because more and more people are finding themselves to be homeless and not knowing where to turn. Many people do not
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 tends to be associated with images of people who sleep in the streets, parks, subways, and sidewalks; who lack shelter of any kind, and are transient throughout the year, moving from place to place. The homeless are sometimes considered as undeserving of support; they are frequently stigmatized as being mentally ill, out of control, and are viewed by some as personally responsible for their situation (Phelan, Link, Moore & Stueve, 1997).
Homelessness is a major problem facing many cities. Some people are homeless because of unfortunate situations, and others are homeless by choice. Homelessness has been around since 1640.
According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, humans can’t reach self-actualization or have high self-esteem if they haven’t met the most basic needs: physiological needs and safety. People experiencing homelessness hardly ever get full meals during the day, or enough sleep during the night. A lot of them also have no kind of safety, whether it be resources, family, or simply a job. Lack of security needs usually results in the lack of stimulation/motivation needs or status needs. These people experiencing homelessness are therefore stuck at the bottom of the pyramid, regardless of how hard they try to climb it
The Homeless are a vulnerable population. Homelessness is a social issue that anyone can almost be subjected to despite his or her age, race, ethnicity or geographical background. Kornblum (2012) defined homelessness as… “as a social condition in which people do not have regular housing and are forced to sleep in public places, public shelters, or facilities designed for homeless individuals and families” (p.280). The homeless population faces several adversaries in their lifetime of being homeless. Their adversaries are a lack physical and emotional disabilities, and possibly drug abuse. Grant some are homeless by choice, whereas most are homeless by mishaps, but nevertheless, they are humans deserving to be treated with fairness, dignity,
Homelessness depicts the circumstances of an individual or family without steady, lasting, fitting lodging, or the quick prospect, means and capacity of securing
Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling. People who are homeless are unable or unwilling to acquire and maintain regular, safe, and adequate housing, or lack "fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence.
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
People drive or walk past a homeless person almost every day without thinking twice about the plight of that person or they may even unconsciously turn their heads the other way in disgust. Homelessness simply put, means without a home - therefore homelessness is an equal opportunity state that can happen to anyone. Even though we have seen some economic prosperity over the years, statistics show that the number of homeless remains very high. With this in mind, communities need to come together at the state, city, and individual level to come up with solutions to mitigate the spreading of this problem.
According to Somerville (2013), homelessness is a multidimensional concept where it is more than an individual not having a roof over their head. It is where there person is deprived of a number of different necessities. One necessity is physiological which means that the person may be lacking bodily comfort or warmth. Another necessity comes from an emotional standpoint which in this case would be the lacking of love and/or joy. The territorial necessity is lacking in homelessness as well and that is when someone has a lack of privacy. The last two necessities are ontological and spiritual, where ontological is someone’s lack of rootedness in the world while spiritual is one’s lack of home and lack of purpose (Somerville, 2013,
Then, how would they know where they stand in relationship to their society. To know one's own human boundaries there must be someone on top, and someone on the bottom, the homeless. When one gets to be homeless, it is said to be wholly encompassing leaning on their impression of who they are. The spiritual and emotional conditions become as, or more important than, the physicality of being homeless (Somerville 386). Transference to the situation can be identity engulfing, and cause one to wonder if there is any way to be what they once were.
Homelessness is increasing more every year. In fact, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, over 640,000 people experience homelessness every
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.