The Serious Issues of Poverty and Homelessness in the US

Homelessness in the United States can be ended, not just maintained. Allot of cities now have plans to eradicate homelessness. Homelessness and housing instability are large issues that afflict a diverse demographic such as: Families, youth, veterans, and chronically homeless single male adults. Ending homelessness may require specialized solutions that are specific to individual needs. Factors like these make defeating homelessness a difficult task. Although solutions exist for some of the demographics, such as housing for chronically homeless adults, scaling up best practices remains a challenge. For other subpopulations, such as transitional aged youth, evidence-based interventions need to be developed. In this paper we argue that ending homelessness is a Grand Challenge that is big, important, and compelling—one that the profession of social work should be adopt. Meeting this challenge will require a focused, organized response from social work researchers, clinicians, and policymakers. Ending homelessness will require innovation and interdisciplinary or cross-sector collaboration. Key words: Housing First, Permanent Supportive Housing, rapid re-housing, prevention, poverty. The notion that homelessness in the United States can be ended, rather than managed (Mangano, 2002; National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2012), represents a fundamental shift in expectations from the 1980s and ’90s. Since the early 2000s, researchers, policymakers, advocates,

Many causes become the answers to homeless people. The most easy understanding of homelessness is they don not have houses. Homeless people live in the streets because they do not have a house, but every homeless person does not have a house since he was born is impossible. First, shortage of substance use is the major part for

Homeless families compose a fraction of the homeless population as they “represent roughly a third of the homeless population in the United States (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2010), and approximately 1.5 million children—1 in 50 youngsters—are homeless each year in the United States” (p. 389). These homeless families often struggle to find permanent residency as a collective unit. There are several types of housing situations available for homeless families such as temporary housing, transitional housing settings, and shelters, yet the housing situation for homeless families often causes stress for families as stability and a secure home is always in question. “The lack of stable, consistent housing is the central, defining characteristic of families experiencing homelessness, distinguishing them and their experience(s) from those with stable housing who experience other correlated conditions (e.g., poverty)” (Kilmer, Cook, Crusto, Strater, and Haber, 2012, p. 394). Homeless families often seek different types of housing usually by first reaching out to temporary shelters in emergency situations like domestic violence that often lead to homelessness, which provide services for children and families. There are many challenges families encounter in the process of seeking permanent housing.

Homelessness in the United States is a serious problem that can be helped by giving homeless people opportunities to thrive in better conditions and/or communities. Although getting them off the streets is a huge step in the right direction, other actions need to be taken. Making sure they have somebody in their corner is a huge step in that process. There are 1,750,000 homeless people on the streets at this very moment. 1 in 30 children in the US, 40% of the homeless population are also Veterans. Some people wonder how someone even becomes homeless, there are multiple reasons, such as physical or mental impairments, living in poverty, and tragic life occurrences.

Homelessness has increasing become one of the most pressing and urgent social political problems of our time. It is argued that three of the most important policy issues are health, housing and income. Homelessness is defined as a situation in which an individual lacks a fixed, regular and adequate residence during the night. This definition excludes individuals in correctional facilities or those detained by law. The case is clearly depicted in urban communities, where thousands of people live on the streets or shelters. In rural areas the case of homelessness is less prevalent in that, homeless persons are likely to live with a relative or friends in

There is no doubt that being homeless has always been a problem in America. It is a problem for everybody, no one ever wants to be deemed homeless. Recent studies reveal that being homeless has now turned into an epidemic in some cities across the country. The homeless population has increased this year for the first time since the Great Recession and I think it is utterly ridiculous when the top two prominent cities in the United States (New York City and Los Angeles) are among the top three homeless cities in the world. The increase has been so disturbing that some state governments decided to call for a state of emergency. The reason behind the homeless population increase is due to the West Coasts flourishing economy. Rent wages increased

One of the most dominant reasons for homelessness is due to financial difficulties. Poverty, unemployment, and a lack of affordable housing are some of the main financial reasons which leads to homelessness (Thompson. p. 4). Millions of Americans live close to the poverty line. People living at this level of income commonly do not have additional resources at

Homeless as defined by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) as an individual who lacks housing, including those whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provides temporary living accommodations, they are a person with out permanent housing, who may live on the streets, in a shelter, abandoned building, or other unstable situations (HHS). It is important for communities throughout the United States to develop a system that identifies the number of homeless around them. This information is valuable to many government and private agencies, it enables them to acquire, and maintain needed resources and money in order to best serve their homeless populations. There are different ways that communities attempt to count their homeless population, shelters, feeding centers and others who provide resources are able to take count of how many they serve each day, but unfortunately it can be hard to track those who do not come on a returning basis. The US Census Bureau every 10 years also conducts a Service-Based Enumeration (SEB) to help count the population In the study published by the National

During the Great Depression, millions of Americans were unemployed which was a huge issue. Unemployment led to homelessness and being poor. Millions of people were unemployed and struggling to find any jobs (Hayes). As the Great Depression got worse and worse, the number of hiring jobs decreased and less jobs were available. Companies were “Firing and not hiring” so many Americans were homeless and unable to make money to support their struggling families (Hayes). The loss of jobs did an incredible amount of damage to the Americans living during this horrific time.

Two factors intensify poverty, which lead to homelessness: high unemployment rates and a decline in available public assistance, Individuals and families who live at or are below the poverty level must constantly grapple with critical life decisions because of barely being able to pay the bills per Kim. When people cannot steadily afford housing, food, childcare, medical care, and education, it is often housing that is sacrificed.

The severity of homelessness and poverty has been a much-debated topic in America. Some people believe that homelessness is one of the most serious issues in our country, while others think that the percentage is not high enough to qualify homelessness as a massive problem. In, reality, however, the subject of homelessness cannot be confined to simply “existent” and “non-existent”.

Homelessness has become an epidemic across the United States of America over the past 40 years. Despite the fact that most individuals are reminded of this problem on a daily basis when they see those without homes on the street, few solutions have been implemented that would fix the causes of this horrendous issue. Funding for programs that assist the homeless and homeless prevention programs is abysmal, while the costs incurred due to such a large homeless population continue to rise. Over the past century, a variety of acts and programs have been put in place that has dramatically affected the homeless population of the time, both positively and negatively. This problem can be directly linked to the outcomes of these acts and programs. In order to attack the root cause, the American population needs to look back at the history of homelessness and increase our awareness of what is truly preventing the homeless from mobilizing.

Homelessness has become a serious problem in today’s society. Despite the organizations that help multitudes of homeless people, homelessness is continually increasing. In recent years, America’s culture has been changing due to economic, political, and social issues. These issues have caused a lot of stress on America resulting in abject poverty in several cities. Poverty is not nationwide, but if dealt with lightly, the affects can be catastrophic. Homelessness is increasing more than ever, and research proves that changing culture contributes to rising amount of homelessness.

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

Usually when a person thinks of the poor and the homeless, they think about those that are living and sleeping on park benches or under bridges. They think of those who are dirty, with ragged clothing, worn out shoes, and those begging or panhandling for food. The truth of the matter is that poverty and homelessness can affect people of any age, race or gender. More Americans are at the risk of poverty and homelessness today. There are many circumstances that can cause a person to live in poverty and become homeless. The lack of affordable housing, low paying jobs or lack of employment, and insufficient federal aid all contribute to poverty and homelessness.