The Rise Of A Homeless Community

Currently, the rates of homelessness in America continue to drastically increase. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (2012) depicted how many people are homeless in a single night in America. The findings revealed that there were approximately 633,782 people who are homeless in America or 20 out of every 10,000. Approximately 394,379 are single individuals and 239,403 are people in families with 77,157 homeless families in a single night, and approximately 162, 246 are children. Veterans are more likely to be homeless than those who are non-veterans, approximately 29 out of every 10,000 veterans are homeless. Unfortunately, 38 percent of those who are homeless are unsheltered, either living on the streets or in places that are not suitable for human inhabitation. Most states account of for less than 1% of homeless population, whereas Texas contains approximately 5.4% of America’s homeless population. In San Antonio, there are approximately 2,981 people who are homeless each day, and 1,243 are unsheltered. Through a sociological perspective, the social problems of homelessness can be analyzed through the concept of sociological imagination, the comparison of the person-blame approach and the system-blame approach, and through the analysis of one’s own community’s effort in helping those who are homeless.

Homelessness is basically another form of poverty except more extreme, yet society treats it as if it was on another spectrum of problems. Some in society stigmatize this population by saying things like: they’re homeless because they are drug addicts, alcoholics, they don’t want to work and just live off the government for free. What many forget to think about are the factors that have these people on the street, or the fact that they are not only experiencing personal hardship by being without a permanent residence but emotional ones as well. Add the fact they are sometimes discriminated against and excluded by society, and you will realize you are looking at one of the most vulnerable populations.

Homelessness in the United States is a multifaceted problem, there are many factors to consider when examining this homelessness including access to health care, economic conditions and public policy as well as a host of other issues. Problems with homelessness that need addressed are the stigmatizations of being homeless and how this perception has led to anti-homeless policies, how reforming anti-homeless policies can lead to shifting society’s perception of the issue of homelessness, and finally why social workers must be at the forefront of the campaign to facilitate meaningful change to reduce the human suffering

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).

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 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 is a serious societal problem affecting our communities. Katel of Housing the Homeless says “about 1.5 million Americans use a shelter in a given year- and advocates for the homeless say that figure badly understates the problem.” Yet, society looks down at these people, not doing anything to help them. They are judged, criticized, and bombarded by false assumptions everywhere they go. I have heard people say “they are like that because they chose to” or “they are lazy and don't want to work.” This is not true in most cases. The reality is life can go wrong at any moment for anyone. For some people there is no one there to help them and their only option is living on the streets or a shelter.

Homeless teenagers are a vulnerable population that faces many challenges just in terms of daily existence in addition to their overall development in the transitioning to adulthood. Current studies are reported to indicate that the primary cause of homeless among youth is "family dysfunction in the form of parental neglect, physical or sexual abuse, family substance abuse, and family violence." (Runway & Homeless Youth and Relationship Toolkit, 2009, p.1) Homeless youth are generally defined as "an unaccompanied youth ages 12 and older who are without family support and who are living in shelters, on the streets, in cares or vacant buildings and who are 'couch surfing' or living in other unstable circumstances." (Runway & Homeless Youth and Relationship Toolkit, 2009, p.1) Son (2002) writes that it is "...unknown how many homeless youth are out there. Most of them are not in the child welfare, juvenile justice, or mental health systems, making it difficult to accurately gather statistical data." (p.2)

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.

A homeless person is an individual without a permanent, stable housing situation who either spends his or her nights on the streets or in temporary facilities, such as shelters and abandoned buildings. Throughout history, society has been “holding the poor, rape or incest victims, minorities, or the handicapped responsible for their misfortunes” (Zur). Society has been blaming the homeless for being in the position they are in. However, upon closer inspection, it must be noted that “children under the age of 18 accounts for 39% of the homeless population…battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness…[and] 40% of homeless men have served in the armed forces” (Who Is Homeless?). It is clear that those who are homeless are not

Throughout the United States, there are a large number of individuals that goes unnoticed. Hidden in right plain sight, but are overlooked. They can be our friends, family, classmates, or the person standing right next you to at this moment. There are young individuals who are facing the tremendous challenge of being homeless. They are overlooked by many in society. However, there have been countless individuals, groups, organizations dedicated to ending youth homelessness. However, they are confronted with challenges due to the lack of interest. The lack of interest found within society can contribute to barriers to ending youth homelessness.

Homelessness is an epidemic that plagues many people across the United States for many different reasons. However, for young people who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender, living homeless can become especially difficult. Young people of the LGBT community are being put out of their homes, rejected by their families, and shunned by their communities in which they live because of their sexual orientation, something that they themselves have no choice over. This is because of prejudices that are put out by the community as a whole.

The word “homeless” is used to describe many different kinds of people with a variety of problems; the “homeless” includes veterans, the mentally ill, the physically disabled or chronically ill, the elderly on fixed incomes, men, women, and families that have lost their source of income, single parents, runaway children who’ve been abused, alcoholics and drug addicts, immigrants, and traditional tramps, hobos, and transients (Martin, 1999). In “Helping and Hating the Homeless”, Peter Martin claims that although these people all have different backgrounds, histories, and reasons for not having a “home”, they are categorized and stereotyped by society and all looked down upon for being “homeless”. He addresses his readers, those that pass by

Being homeless can be the least or one of the least desirable circumstances one could imagine, causing great difficulties to one more than one could imagine. People usually become homeless as results from a combined of different effects from of extreme poverty, the lack, and limited affordable housing and the decline of government supports, lack of employment opportunities, poor healthcare, and limited health services for mental illness, domestic violence, foreclosures, and evictions (Wikipedia, 2009, p. 6). These are just some of the major reasons that cause people to become homeless. But not all homeless are without jobs. There is a small percent of them do work, but the minimum wage is simply not enough to cover their rent since they are already struggling living paycheck to paycheck or the work is not steady. Forcing more and more not only single people but also entire families.

There is a tremendous amount of LGBT youth that experience homelessness in the United States, and forty percent of them identify themselves as LGBT. There are so many issues that cause homelessness in the LGBT community such as discrimination in religious communities, lack of support from families and rejection from society. But in a world where these issues are all around us, how can we solve this? It starts with every individual to just stop and maybe educate themselves on this unique youth community and the struggles they must face to bring in equality. This education can start with volunteer work, educational classes, or even support groups. The problem is the discrimination against the LGBT youth community, so many do not understand what it means to be in the LGBT individual and the obstacles they must face such as finding a job, going to school and finding a place to live, etc.