The Population And The Lowest Participation Rates

Homelessness is a major social crisis in the United States of America. From 2014 to 2015, homelessness in America increased by 2 percent. The major sub-populations which comprise homeless people in America are unsheltered persons, families, chronically homeless people, and veterans (National Alliance to End Homelessness 3). In America, 15 percent of homeless people are defined as being chronically homeless, while 2 percent of homeless families are chronically homeless (ibid. 7). A person is defined as chronically homeless by the United States Government if they have been continually homeless for a year or more, or have experienced more than twelve months of homelessness in the last three years (Office

Homelessness has always been a problem for the United States. Since its birth as a nation, there have consistently been individuals who find themselves without a place to live, looking for shelter with family, friends, or simply anywhere they can find it. These individuals have been targeted as candidates for social aid, but this was primarily provided by churches and other care organizations. However, in the past thirty years the homeless population has increased almost exponentially in numbers. While the cause of this is undetermined, it is quite certain that while the

As the US national debt nears $20 trillion, government programs are being looked to be cut, one of those being the SNAP program. SNAP is a federal program which offers nutrition assistance to low income families, by use of food-stamps, while also providing economic benefits to communities (“Supplemental”). SNAP is the largest program in domestic hunger safety (“Supplemental”), the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) works with nutrition educators, faith based organizations, and neighborhood organizations to help those eligible for the SNAP program make informed decisions about applying (“Supplemental”). The FNS also works with the retail community and State partners to improve the program’s integrity and administration (“Supplemental”). The SNAP

Today, Homelessness in the US is becoming one of the top challenging issues to fix. Recent available data shows an increase the number of the homeless between 2014 and 2015. On a single night in January 2014, 578,424 people were experiencing Homelessness — meaning they were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program. From 2014 to 2015, a period of ongoing recovery from the Great Recession, overall homelessness decreased by 2.3 percent and Homelessness decreased among every major subpopulation: unsheltered persons (10 percent), families (2.7 percent), chronically Homeless individuals (2.5 percent), and veterans (10.5 percent). Yet a recent report by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, says homelessness decreased by nearly 4% over the past year.. The reports shows:

There are 50 million people who live in poverty in the U.S, today. There are more than 30 million children growing up in bad conditions. Due to lack of money some people are unable to afford food and shelter which result in homelessness. On a night in January 2014, 578,424 people were experiencing homelessness. These people were sleeping outside or in an emergency shelter because they couldn’t afford to pay for a place to stay and had no family that would let them stay over. Included in the 578,424 homeless people were war veterans, people with mental health issues, people whose families have thrown them out, and more. During the winter, many homeless people freeze to death because they don’t have the appropriate clothing for the low temperature. Today there are about 795 million people out of the 7.3 billion people in the world, suffering from chronic malnourishment. Over a thousand people go through their day without eating including men, women, and children. These people are too poor to afford food for themselves or their families; although there are food stamps and other services to provide to help these families, some don’t want to accept this help because they believe it is their job to provide for their

Also many of the impoverished people have SNAP benefits, but they do not have a grocery store near them to use these benefits at. The Social Work and Social Welfare textbook states that, “The average SNAP grant per household was $287, or $4.30 per person per day.” This means that most people really could not fully feed themselves while using SNAP. The researchers that conducted the study in this article interviewed and observed various different kinds of people in a rural county. The people they interviewed were of all different ages, had lived in the county for different amounts of time, and had different incomes. The researcher spent a long period of time volunteering at the rural food pantries to make relationships with the community members and to observe what challenges they are facing. After spending that time volunteering, they got volunteers to be interviewed using open-ended questions so that they could have a more complete understanding of the challenges of this food desert. A major finding in the study was that people with strong social ties in the communities did not have problems feeding themselves and keeping themselves

According to the survey conducted by the U.S conference of Mayors, 67% of adults requesting emergency food aids are people with jobs. Recently, American food banks are experiencing a “torrent of need which they cannot meet”. In Maine, Ms Ehrenreich needed immediate food aid or cash assistance as she was new to the place and most of

In many rural, resource-based communities, this population is not on wait lists for low-income housing. They are not receiving subsidized rent or qualify for other income dependent benefits. This population is not homeless because they are experiencing poverty, unemployment, poor physical or mental health, addiction,

Homeless people in Allegheny County, PA are a vulnerable population that needs addressed. Homeless populations consist of individuals, families and veterans who struggle with obtaining the basic needs of life, that many take for granted. A shortage of affordable housing, not enough income to meet basic needs and inefficient support services all contribute to homelessness in the communities (In Nies & In McEwen, 2015, p. 433). Services, help, and resources are available in this county, but getting this vulnerable subset of the population to seek this help, are difficult.

Homelessness does not discriminate. Families with children, single adults, teenagers and older individuals of all races struggle with the devastating effects of homelessness. According to North Carolina Coalition to End Homeless (NCCEH), on one night during the last week of January 2017, 8,962 people experienced homelessness. 73% were sleeping in emergency shelters or transitional housing. 27% were sleeping in unsheltered locations,33% were people in families with children, 67% were adults with no dependent children, and <1% were accompanied children. (NCCEH Data Center) Data plays a crucial role in informing policy decisions about housing and services for homeless persons. Understanding who is homeless and why they are homeless is necessary to end

The SNAP program is able to help many families have food security, making them able to alleviate many of these issues. Food security becomes an even bigger issue with increasing rates of unemployment. As unemployment rates and need for assistance have been rising, so have participants, with the number of participants rising from 17 million in 2000 to 45 million in 2011 (Karger & Stoesz, 2014). However, despite a decrease in unemployment rates from 2003- 2007, the number of people living in poverty rose 4%, which contributed to a 22% increase in SNAP caseloads during that period (Andrews & Smallwood, 2012). When benefit levels were increased to reflect the needs of the 2007 recession, SNAP participation rose 3%, food insecurity prevalence rates dropped 2.2%, and very low food security prevalence rates dropped 2% (Nord & Prell,

No doubt, the recent economic crisis increased the levels of homelessness and food insecurity/hunger in America. The three most commonly cited causes of homelessness in America are substance abuse, lack of affordable housing, and mental illness. However, according to statistics, poverty and homelessness rates in America are overrepresented by minority groups (24.7% to 42% African American, 24.3% American Indian and Alaskan Native, 23.2% Hispanic, and

One out of seven people in the United States is in danger of facing hunger (The National Student Campaign Against Hunger and Homelessness, “Overview of Homelessness in America”). People living in poverty are the ones most at risk of homelessness, and those who are most likely to experience poverty are also more likely to face homelessness. These people include the elderly, youth, families, individuals, and others.

Certain populations of homeless people are resistant to being tracked or recorded by any government agency, which creates a sense of caution for workers approaching these people (Agans 1). The difficulty of tracking homeless people complicates processes such as census work, as well as gathering information over an extended period of time from individuals for the purposes of studying homelessness. Because homeless people often change location repeatedly within a short time frame, getting accurate data on the population becomes exceedingly challenging. Information can be gathered through extensive face to face interviews with homeless individuals, both by walking around cities trying to find these individuals, and by targeting shelters. These types of surveys, such as the one conducted by the Survey Research Unit, University of North Carolina, show that historically, some of the key factors causing homelessness are lack of affordable housing, drug addiction, unemployment rates, and lack of housing for the mentally ill (Agans 3).

Currently acting as one of the largest nutrition assistance programs administered by the United States Department of Agriculture, The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, works to distribute aid through the form of food stamps to needy, low-income families. The program’s original objective, as stated by the Food Stamp Act of 1977, was to “alleviate hunger and malnutrition…by increasing food purchasing power for all eligible households who apply for participation.” However, while in the short term SNAP allows poor families to make it through the week without facing the same levels of starvation akin to third-world countries, it does not adequately address the crux of the problem, that is, the inability for needy families to become self-sufficient without the need for governmental aid. In actuality, the SNAP initiative is unsuccessful at increasing the purchasing power of its applicants, and ultimately fails to aid its applicants in breaking out of impoverishment or achieving financial independence. To further highlight the inefficiencies of the SNAP program, it should be noted that often the benefits offered through the program fail to even fulfil its short-term purpose of keeping the poor fed and healthy. Despite the fact that more citizens are receiving food stamps than ever before,