The Growing Problem of Child Homelessness in America

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It is something that a lot of us are used to seeing on a regular basis standing at the end of an off ramp holding a sign say “homeless and hungry.” You will see them wondering the streets digging through trash in search for something to eat. We see them everywhere and our initial reaction when we see them is to ignore them and not look at them. You especially avoid making eye contact with them and automatically label them as someone who is too lazy to go get a job or is a drug or alcohol addict and that they would much rather live on the streets.

Homelessness is a continuing growing problem, with more and more not just adults but children forced to live on the streets. Homeless people are humans just like us. Being homeless, you are faced with an everyday constant battle just to stay alive. With the government, creating laws that are against them along with being mistreated by society on a daily basis and with little or no support at all makes it very hard to want to survive. Homelessness affects everyone. No matter their race, age, ethnic background (Rosenheck, 2007).

Stewart B. McKinney definition of a homeless person is described as someone who "lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate night-time residence; and has a primary night time residency that is: (A) a supervised publicly or privately operated shelter designed to provide temporary living accommodations (Homeless, 2009) (B) An institution that provides a temporary residence for individuals intended to be institutionalized (Homeless, 2009) or (C) a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human being" (Homeless, 2009).

In 1987, the federal government decided to step in and passed the McKinney...

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...ues are understood in terms of one’s society, culture, or even one’s own individual values (Mosser, 2010). Relativism, selfishness spread though our society like germs,

To find a solution for homelessness and the cause and effects it has on a community as well as the person its self are complex. But no matter what skill, interest, age, or resource, there are always way to make a difference for some of the men, women, and children who are homeless (National Coalition for the Homeless, 2006).

Works Cited

Bonfantini, M. A., & Proni, G. (1988). To guess or not to guess? In U. Eco & T. A. Sebeok (Eds.), The sign of three: Dupin, Holmes, Pierce (pp. 112-119). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

An excellent essay on reasoning and the basis of guesswork.

Wolf, E. (1990). Distinguished lecture: Facing power. American Anthropologist, 92, 586-596.

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