Homelessness Of Our Nation Needs Programs example essay topic

Homelessness How do we define homelessness? A person who is homeless does not have a fixed regular and adequate day and nighttime residence. This person may be sleeping on the streets, with friends or family, in cars or abandoned building or in shelters. Throughout the United States it has been estimated that between 355,000, and 445,000 million people who are homeless everyday and night.

The problem of homelessness is not only something that happens in large cities, but that happens everywhere. Homelessness is a major problem not only in our country but throughout the entire world. There are too many homeless people and not enough shelters. Homelessness is something that affects people of all ages, races, backgrounds, and religions.

There are many different factors that can also contribute to becoming homeless. Poverty is the major cause of homelessness. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income that must be dropped. Being poor means being an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets.

Lack of work opportunities also plays a big part on the homelessness issue. Media reports of a growing economy and low unemployment mask a number of important reasons why homelessness persists, and, in some areas of the country, is worsening. These reasons include stagnant or falling incomes and less secure jobs which offer fewer benefits. The declining value and availability of public assistance is another source of increasing poverty and homelessness.

A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have contributed to the current housing crisis and to homelessness. The gap between the number of affordable housing units and the number of people needing them has created a housing crisis for poor people. Between 1973 and 1993, 2.2 million low-rent units disappeared from the market. These units wee either abandoned, converted into condominiums or expensive apartments, or become unaffordable because of cost increases. More recently, the strong economy has caused rents to soar, putting housing out of reach for the poorest Americans. The lack of affordable housing has led to high rent burdens which absorb a high proportion of income, to overcrowding, and substandard housing.

These phenomena, in turn, have not only forced many people to become homeless; they have put a large and growing number of people at risk of becoming homeless. Another factor for homelessness is lack of affordable health care. For families and individuals struggling to pay the rent, a serious illness or disability can start a downward spiral into homelessness, beginning with the lost of a job, depletion of savings to pay for care, and eventual eviction. In 2000, approximately 38.7 million Americans had no health care insurance (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998 b). Nearly a third of persons living in poverty had no health insurance of any kind.

The coverage held by many others would not carry them through a catastrophic illness. A major factor in the causes of poverty is domestic violence. Battered women who live in poverty are often forced to choose between abusive relationships and homelessness. In a study of 777 homeless parents (the majority of whom were mothers) in ten U.S. cities, 22% said they had left their place of residence because of domestic violence (Homes for the Homeless, 21998). Studying the entire country, though, reveals that the problem is even more serious. Nationally, approximately half of all women and children experiencing homelessness are fleeing domestic violence (Zora, 1991; National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, 2001).

There are different types of people that become homeless. The newest population among the homeless is women, children, the elderly and whole families. Alcoholics account for only about twenty percent of our nations homeless. Women make up approximately twenty to twenty-seven percent of our nations homeless population. There are many factors that lead to women becoming homeless. These include the loss of inexpensive housing, spousal abuse, and economic hardship from sex and age discrimination.

The homeless family usually mainly consists of a woman alone and two to three children. Some homeless families may include a father figure but they are few. Most families become homeless from loss of their homes either through fire, eviction, or the escaping of an abusive environment. Two million people under the age of twenty-one make up another part of the homeless. Many are homeless by choice, because they have run away from home while others have simply been forced out of their homes. Still others have outgrown the foster care system that we have in our country.

Very young children, under the age of ten, are homeless because their families are homeless. Many homeless children are poorly nourished, clothed, and educated. Patients who are discharged from mental institutions, also known as the mentally ill, have had a tremendous influence on the number of homelessness. In the past, out of the two thousand community mental health centers there are, only eight hundred have ever been funded.

People who are unemployed are becoming the newest members of the homeless. Without employment they are unable to provide a permanent shelter for themselves and so they enter the world of the homeless. Elderly homeless are less noticeable in our society than other homeless individuals. Many elderly homeless are ashamed to ask help as they have always managed to take care of themselves. For an elderly person to be in the homeless position can be especially demeaning for them. Our nation's government needs to establish programs that will actually help solve the homeless problem.

The building of more shelters would be a good thing, but it is only a temporary fix. The homelessness of our nation needs programs that will give them back the means of taking care of themselves and incorporate them back into our society in a useful way.