The Problem Of The Lgbt Homelessness

     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

“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

There are more than 500,000 homeless individuals all over the United States who are either living inside shelter homes or along the streets according to a survey conducted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness. Various surveys are being conducted so that the current problems being experienced by these homeless people can be properly addressed and the necessary solutions can be provided. Among the information gathered are as follows:

It is estimated that 3.5 million people will experience homelessness during a given year. The fastest growing population experiencing homelessness is families, mostly made up of single mothers and her children. Families headed by women comprise more than half of the homeless population and 42% of this population is under the age of 5. Across the country about 2.5 million children are homeless, which is equivalent to 1 in every 30 children. The legal definition of homeless “refers to those who spend 7 consecutive nights in a car, abandoned building, public park, emergency shelter, nonresidential building, or other unconventional residence.

The homeless are impacted far more by everyday issues than those who are not. Often times, homeless children can be sick four times as much as middle class children and have superior rates of acute and recurring illnesses. In addition, they experience emotional and behavioral problems can hinder with learning at almost three times the rate of other children. “Homeless children between 6 and 17 years struggle with high rates of mental health problems. For example, 47% have problems

Homelessness is a pressing issue that affects everyone all over the world, of all ages, all race and all sexes. There is an inexcusable amount of young people who are homeless. 17% of all homeless people are under the age of twelve. That could be the age of a younger sibling. Imagine if they were homeless, living on the streets. This is the reality that some have to face

Homeless children is more of a problem than people realize. Children who are homeless have a greater chance of having heath problems than the other children since they do not have access to medical and dental care. "Children who lack a stable home are vulnerable to a number of adverse outcomes" (Child). These children are more likely to repeat a school grade, be expelled from school, and even drop out of high school. Most homeless children have experienced violence and they now suffer from anxiety and depression. There are two types of homeless children. One type is called "Family Homeless" which is when a child is separated from their parents and placed into foster care or they are living with some of their family members. The other type is called "Unaccompanied Youth" which is when children are out on their own and have no one with them which includes the runaway youth. It is very hard to count the number of homeless children because their living situation changes frequently.

There is a direct correlation between crime rates and the number of homeless people in an area. Children are the most vulnerable among the homeless population. Statistically, children who are homeless at any point have a greater chance of being homeless when they are adults, thus, continuing the cycle of poverty.

First and foremost, how do we defined a homeless person? According to National Health Care for the Homeless Council, homeless is defined as “an individual who lacks housing, including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provides temporary living accommodations, and an individual who is a resident in a transitional housing” (“definition of homelessness,” n.d.). It is important to recognize that homelessness is worldwide and social problem because it is directly affected by large social forces that affects individual’s social life. In a research made by Coalition for the homeless says that in December 2015, there were 60,096 homeless people in New York city, including 14,553 homeless families with 23, 885 homeless children. Moreover, this becomes a social problem, due in large part to structural inequality and it affects a wide variety of people that can range from those people experiencing eviction, unemployment, family relationship breakdown, domestic violence, health crises, poverty, mental illness and substance abuse. These reasons can be the precipitating factor in the onset of homelessness.

The issue of homelessness has been called as one that is "highly ambiguous and intangible" (Neale, 1997, p.7). Wright defines the homeless a "diverse, heterogeneous lot. No single catch phrase or easy myth can possibly describe them all" (p.46)

As stated before SAMHSA (2011) stated that 1,593,150 individuals experienced homelessness within a year. The source also broke down this large figure into gender, age, race/ethnicity, mental illness and substance abuse. 62% of individuals were male and 38% were female. Individuals who are under the age of 18 is 21.8%. On average, half the families have small children, which is the fastest growing population of the homeless (Donohoe, 2007). Citizens who are 18 to 30 years of age are 23.5%, 31 to 50 are 37%, 51 to 61 are 14.9%, and 62 years of age or older are 2.8%. Within the age make up are different variations of races/ethnicity. White and Non-Hispanic make up 41.6%, White and Hispanic are 9.7%, Black/African American are 37%, other single races are 4.5%, and more than one race is 7.2%. In addition to these statistics, it is also stated that 26.2% on individuals who are homeless have severe mental illness, and 34.7% have a chronic substance abuse issue (SAMHSA, 2011).

I believe that the main causes of homelessness are low minimum wages and lack of affordable housing. One reason to why the issue is very important to me is that mostly minorities are affected by homelessness. In fact, Approximately 58 percent of New York City homeless shelter residents are African-American, 31 percent are Latino, 7 percent are white, less than 1 percent are Asian-American, and 3 percent are of unknown

According to Social Solutions there are 564,708 people in the United States that are homeless as of 2016. 15% of the homeless are chronically homeless, which means an individual who has disability and has experienced homelessness for a year or longer. 35% are families who can’t afford housing, 8% of the homeless are veterans due to poverty and overcrowding in government housing, and the rest of the homeless are single young adults who either got rejected for being who they are or there was conflict and they ran away.( Social Solutions) The National Alliance to End Homelessness explains,

LGBT homeless people have been suffering for a substantial amount of time, and it seems as if not many people are aware of this issue. When people think about homeless people they usually do not think about their sexual orientation. But, little do people know that there are many homeless youths that are either lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. Yes, many reasons play into why a youth could be without a roof over his or her head and the sad part of this issue is that one of many reasons. Parents disagree with their child’s sexual orientation and disown them by kicking them out of the house or it could be that it is a runaway youth that is not willing to come out of the closet. Whatever the reason is, we as a society must further understand what goes into play about a homeless youth.

Poverty is considered the most common and pervasive cause of homelessness because everything else is linked to it. Had someone not been poor, loss of his job wouldn't land him on the streets; similarly lack of public assistance is only a problem if you need it. In other words, when a person loses his job, or seeks public assonance or looks for affordable housing, he is doing it because his income is unable to help him meet his expenses. For this reason, he can be categorized as poor. Thus many poor people are forced to end up on the streets. Unfortunately a very significant portion of this population is composed of innocent children who are forced to live on streets because their parents cannot afford a house. "In 2007, 12.5% of the U.S. population, or 37, 300, 00 million people, lived in poverty. The official poverty rate in 2007 was not statistically different than 2006 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2007). Children are overrepresented, composing 35.7% of people in poverty while only being 24.8% of the total