Mother Teresa once said, “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.” Poverty and homelessness are two controversies that remain a nuisance in American society today. Both are the reasons for hundreds of thousands of people being out of the workforce. Today, the economy is at a standstill. Money is being spent inefficiently by the government on issues other than current unemployment and poverty, causing what seems to be a decline in jobs. As a result, the number of full time jobs created is at an all time low. In their place are part-time jobs being instituted. There are many different social, political, and economic factors …show more content…
Although the two are different topics, both are connected in the way each impact millions of Americans throughout country. Generally, unemployment will eventually lead to any individual becoming homeless if there is no other sufficient source of income. Unemployment is defined as people who do not have a job, have actively looked for work in the past four weeks, are currently available for work, as well as people who were temporarily laid off and are waiting to be called back to that job (“What is Unemployment?”). People who have not been looking for work for longer than four weeks are removed from the labor force, which usually happens when someone retires or has a condition that prevents them from working (“What is Unemployment?”). The unemployment rates are so significant because they help when trying to figure out the health of the economy (“What is Unemployment?”). The economy tends to slow down when there is less money being spent in the U.S, and when the money is being spent elsewhere other causes. When the economy slows down and is in bad shape, more people are likely to be homeless because there are less jobs available. Homelessness is another rising epidemic in the United States, with one out of seven people at risk of suffering from hunger (“Hunger and Homelessness”). The combination of the high cost of living, low-wage jobs, and high unemployment are making the …show more content…
For example, there are several economic factors that impact people daily. Lack of affordable housing is a major issue. The lack of affordable housing in the United States is causing the gap between wage earnings and the cost of housing is growing (Campaign Against Hunger And Homelessness). This is leaving millions of families and individual Americans unable to provide for themselves (Campaign Against Hunger And Homelessness). Studies have shown that in order to afford a two-bedroom apartment at the average fair market rent, families across the U.S. would have to earn a “housing wage” of $15.37 an hour, which is three times the current minimum wage (Campaign Against Hunger And Homelessness). Low incomes is another reason people are affected economically. Many low and minimum wage workers cannot afford food and shelter (Campaign Against Hunger And Homelessness). The income of minimum wage workers has not kept pace with with the cost of living in twenty-five years (Campaign Against Hunger And Homelessness). Since the late 1960s, the minimum wage value has continually decreased, which is worth about 27% less than it was in 1968. The result is many minimum wage workers who can’t provide themselves with basic necessities to survive (Campaign Against Hunger And
According to a 1997 report of the National Coalition for the Homeless, “nearly one-fifth of all homeless people are employed in full or part-time jobs”. In the book Nickel and Dimed, On Not Getting by in America, by Barbara Ehrenreich, the author goes undercover in order to investigate and experience first-hand how life is for America’s “working poor”. The “working poor” are defined as individuals who have a full-time job, sometimes more than one, but still cannot afford the basics of shelter, food and adequate healthcare. As one can imagine, this led to many public health concerns. In each of the three locations visited, Ehrenreich realizes that for many, “getting by” in America can sometimes be a daunting task.
In many communities across our country, mainly vacation or resort locales, a lack of affordable housing is seen. As a result, workers must drive around thirty miles out of town to find an apartment cheap enough to support their low wage earnings. Since low-wage earners usually have a lack of savings, they are unable to put down money in advance for a cheap apartment. For instance, Ehrenreich explains that “If you can't put up the two months' rent you need to secure an apartment, you end up paying through the nose for a room by the week.” (Ehrenreich 27). Ehrenreich ended up facing the physical toll of handling two jobs at one just to provide for the needs of basic survival. This can be seen as an important issue within our society because workers need to have access to affordable housing otherwise they will get restless and move somewhere closer to their current housing. Not only will this decrease the number of staff on hand for certain locations, the issue of no affordable housing will eventually put people out onto the streets. Our society constantly puts forward the need to make money off of high prices, instead of helping those with little to no money. An unchecked issue like this would grow into something far worse which at the time would be very difficult to handle. The notion of taking two or more jobs at the same time just
Homelessness in the United States has been an important subject that the government needs to turn its attention to. There has been announced in the news that the number of the homeless people in many major cities in the United States has been increasing enormously. According to United States Interagency Council on Homelessness reported that there was an estimation of 83,170 individuals have experienced chronic homelessness on the streets of the United States’ streets and shelters on only a single night of January 2015, which is a small decrease of only 1% from the previous year (People Experiencing Chronic Homelessness, n.d.). The United States must consider this subject that most of the people underestimate it and not pay attention
This paper will examine a subgroup of the homeless population, homeless families. It will explore the multiple causes of family homelessness and the consequences homelessness has on family life. The three main reasons for the abundance of dispossessed families within America are the following: 1) the lack of affordable housing, 2) low wages in the job-market, and 3) insufficient federal aid. In today’s society, these causes are the main contributors towards the heartbreaking condition of family homelessness, which often leads to family breakups, health issues, and educational obstacles. This paper will also give possible solutions to family homelessness and improvement plans for the future.
There are many components that contribute to the homelessness in America. Neoliberalism and capitalism are very important contributors to discuss. Under these practices lies multiple factors that not only perpetuate, but also maintain homelessness. In a neoliberal era, there’s a shift of deregulating and privatizing public spheres/programs and move it under the authority of private and individual entities. This includes the lack of support and funding in access to affordable housing, employment, income, public health, and other public assistance. Neoliberalism, poverty, and capitalism has play a key role in sustaining the unequal distribution of wealth and resources among people, which has resulted folks in losing their sense of self.
Education can be somewhat helpful to people headed toward poverty or homelessness. However, new research is showing that education is needed but alone it is simply not enough to help people get jobs and help their situation. Along with their education, the poor need job training in the area of work they are looking towards (Bernstein 1). The training along with the mandatory education helps people excel in something they are good at and improve their job chances. The people who do get their education and job training then run into another roadblock. In the U.S. economy, typically low-wage jobs are more abundant. In fact, the low-wage sector of the economy is the part that is projected to grow the most. In the next ten years, thirty new low-wages jobs are expected to be added to the work force. Of those thirty, half of the new jobs will require very little training (Bernstein 3). This results in a lower quality of work and less pay. Many people on the verge of poverty occupy these low paying job...
Economic problems such as being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of housing had lead people to live on the streets. Many of the homeless are women that have become divorced or have left home because of physical abuse. These women have no education because they have not been given the chance to go and get the education that it takes nowadays to get the job, so they are forced to live on the streets. They have no family to help them and they are left with no other choice. People with mental illnesses also become homeless quite often. These people are incapable of handling the stress of living on their own. These people get kicked out of their homes and are to ashamed to go to their families because of their illness, so we see them on the streets struggling to stay warm. Teenage mothers are also forced to live on the streets because their families will not help them. The fathers are not there and that forces them to live on the streets. So they must resort to prostitution to pay for the food that their young ones need to stay alive. There are many other people that become homeless for many different reasons. Some of these people can not help becoming homeless. Some of these people are the illegal immigrants that come here from other places to get a better life but end up not having enough money to make it in this hard world that we live in.
Homelessness is a problem that happens in many different countries around the world. Definitions of homelessness are defined in different meanings by different people. However, the Stewart B. McKinney Act defines a homeless person as “ one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accommodations for human beings” (McNamara 1025). It is impossible to find out exactly the number of homeless; however, the researchers can do a study to estimate that number. Based on different statistics from different researchers, the homeless population in America has been increasing as “an alarming rate” (Markos and Lima). Therefore, even though America is one of the most powerful countries in the world, homelessness, which has many common causes, has always been a big problem in society.
The root cause of homelessness is largely be explained by economics: people who become homeless have insufficient financial resources to obtain or maintain housing. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey (ACS) shows that 75% of households at or below the poverty line are severely housing cost burdened. Unexpected financial crises would jeopardize housing stability and lead to an increased risk of homelessness.
Ehrenreich’s use of statistical information also proves to her audience that she in fact has done her research on this topic. She admits that poverty is a social topic that she frequently talks about. She researched that in 1998 the National Coalition for the Homeless reported that nationwide on average it would take about a wage of $8.89 to afford a one bedroom apartment and that the odds of common welfare recipients landing a job that pays such a “living wage” were about 97 to 1. Ehrenreich experiences this statistic in first person when she set out job hunting in Key West, Florida when she applied to 20 different jobs, ranging from wait tables to housekeeping, and of those applications, zero were responded to.
The economic component of the homelessness situation can be broken down into two interrelated parts: housing affordability and a low income rate. The economic recession that followed the financial crisis of 2007 left many individuals unemployed during a time that saw a spike in the price of housing. So not only did the cost of living increase, the rate of income also decreased accordingly. Unsurprisingly, during these same years homelessness rose from 24.2 percent in 2007 to 29.4 percent in 2009 (citation).
Homelessness is not something that was created over night; it has existed for a long time; often we choose not to see the homeless, or bother with them, so we look the other way. Homelessness is not prejudice toward race, creed, or religion--it has no boundaries; all homeless people should not be stereotyped as being drug abusers or the mentally ill that have been released from mental hospitals. Homelessness is not a disease that a person can catch from bodily contact, but it certainly has afflicted many Americans. We need to find the cause of homelessness before we can find a solution. More money for more programs is the typical response, but we should look at what has already been instituted and reevaluate them.
the major factors that put homeless to the population is the combination of declining wages, reduced
Homelessness in the United States and other countries is a global social problem and researchers are constantly researching the causes of homelessness and the effect that homelessness has on the massive of consumers. Both men and women, children and families all share the same risk factors that cause homelessness. One of the main causes that are noted by Karl Marx's Conflict Theory and address the problem is between the capitalism in America; between the wealthy and the poor working-class people. The system uses the poor to build wealth while the poor work very hard every daily and is treated unequally when it come to the financial gains of the most powerful (the government and private companies. The American Dream to home ownership
Many people find themselves in a predicament when they are living with a partner and the two decide to go their separate ways. Some people may not be able afford the cost of living on just their income alone, so when two people terminate a relationship where one depends on the other, both are often left homeless for a period of time. Unemployment is another major cause of people becoming homeless. When people lose their jobs and fail to find another within a reasonable amount of time, they will not be able to pay their rent or mortgage on time or even at all, causing them to look else where for shelter. Many people are not fortunate enough to have a family member that is willing, or capable, of taking them in and supporting them. The main cause of homelessness comes from people being evicted from their place of residence either by their parents, friends, or land lord. Parents will often kick their kids out of the house because they can not financially support them anymore, or they are just simply tired of their kids bumming off of them when they are perfectly capable of supporting themselves or at least contributing to the cost of living expenses. So many people are forced to live on the streets because of something as little as a relationship problem. All homeles...