Argumentative Essay On Homelessness

What is homelessness? HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, defines homeless as “describing a person who lacks a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence”. And the problem of homelessness is more significant than ever, with 2017 experiencing the first increase in the number of homeless in ten years, according to the 2017 Annual Homelessness Assessment Report from HUD. In the same report it is estimated that on a single night in 2017, more than 550,000 people experience homelessness. So the question is, how can we help these hundreds of thousands of individuals? In recent discussions about assistance for the homeless in America, a controversial topic has been over government intervention. On one hand, some argue that those in need should learn to rely on themselves, and that federal programs don’t encourage self-sufficiency. On the

They may say that the cost of these programs is just too much. While understandable, there is actually plenty of evidence that government programs to help the homeless cost less than just leaving the homeless alone. The study in Utah found that giving people supportive housing cost the system about half as much as leaving the homeless to live on the street. At the surface level, this does not seem to make sense. How can dealing with homelessness cost more than ignoring it? The reason is that chronically homeless individuals often spend months or years cycling in and out of homelessness, usually transitioning between emergency shelters, housing centers, mental health facilities, and prisons. This population of about 85,000 people are extremely costly to publicly funded care systems. Because of their high-service needs, this group account for about 10 percent of shelter users but use about 50 percent of resources. So it is true when Cunningham states that “it costs a lot to do nothing about