More handpicked essays just for you.
What are the root causes of homelessness
Essays on strategies to reduce homelessness
What are the root causes of homelessness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: What are the root causes of homelessness
In January I volunteered in a midnight run through my church starting at 10 at night through to the next day. I volunteered for a midnight run because being homeless is a current issue in urban cities. On my first stop, I gave food and other essentials to many homeless people. As I gave out supplies, I talked to many of the people. I met a young man with his dog and he told me some of the obstacles he has to face during the brutal winter. For example, he has to fight for a spot under the garbage and sleep on top of other homeless people in order to survive. He told me his life story of how he lost his job and his family disowned him for pursuing his dreams. That moment opened my perspective on the homeless and my past behavior. I felt lucky
This paper will explain approaches to resolve the social issue of homelessness in the state of Delaware. It will also explain a few reasons why homelessness should be addressed the correct way to potentially end it. I will describe the correlations of homelessness and health, the crimes involving and against the homeless, and lastly the families subjected to homelessness. A few solutions will be recommended in this paper also to optimistically achieve the goal of assisting the homeless and improving the assistance already given.
It was the summer of 2013 when I was living with my grandparents and they told me about volunteering at the church. I didn’t know what they were talking about, so I took the initiative to go find out for myself that following Sunday. I was in the balcony on Sunday, when I heard the announcements saying we can volunteer for their hope food pantry. I was excited because it was going to be a chance where I can help other and get community service hours. Volunteering I began to think positive thoughts and telling myself “ I am doing a good deed”.
The lunch bell rung at full volume as the main doors flung open. I predicted that a herd of people will rush in like the water from a spill gate. But instead every person was a line; in fact it was a neat single filed line. Another thing I was astonished to see was to the fact that every single person I served to was superbly well mannered. It was the magical word of thank-you which left great remarks in my life and made my volunteering experience an enjoyable one. After the shift, I have come to realize that everything my family and friends have said about impoverished people was nothing but just a stereotype. In addition, I have self-discovered that volunteering is what I want to do on my spare time. The joy from making new friends, appreciated and making a difference in society was too meaningful to put in words. From then on, volunteering had become one of my most highly valued priorities. Whenever I have time to spare, I will go
Homelessness can happen to anyone unexpectedly. Many poor people are at the risk of homelessness. The cost of living and trying to find affordable housing can be very difficult. Many who are homeless are in poverty, have a mental illness, or addictions. Homelessness happens from personal, as well as structural factors. Many aren’t able to make enough for rent, as well as, utilities, food, and other expenses each month. More than 6 million Americans pay more than half of their income towards rent (Reamer, 1989). The trend is once someone becomes homeless, it is likely they will be homeless repeatedly. To end homelessness, affordable housing will have to be created because it is peoples largest single expenditure (Anderson, 2013).
There are too many connecting issues that have caused homelessness to escalate from a lifestyle that was really only lived by middle aged individuals with a substance abuse problem, to a condition that is endured everyday by a diverse number of people. The 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) to Congress reveals that 36 percent of the homeless population consisted of individuals in families--over half of which were children--17.8 percent was made up by the chronically homeless, and an estimated 10 percent was comprised of veterans.
There are over 3.5 million homeless people in the United States alone (National Student Campaign against Hunger and Homelessness). Within this amount of people there are challenges beyond not having a home that the majority of citizens with a home do not face. These include: thinking about appearance, quality and source of food, living space, and source of money. Those mentioned are just a few things that non-homeless people may overlook when thinking about the challenges of homelessness. As a nation the way we perceive others around us comes into play here. Intentionally or not, homeless people are often judged based on their situation, rather than who they are. This may exist due to the communication barrier between the homeless and non-homeless. In order to move away from judgment and stereotypes, education on the subject of homelessness is vital.
Imagine passing by a homeless man, holding up a sign saying homeless hunger, what do you do? you can do two things walk past it and ignore the man or give money. When you walk past the men then you need View A and View B. These views are the views of yours and the man, meaning that if you walk past the man you probably think “this is just one person, he can find a job and work rather than living in the street” that is View A. As you walk past the man he probably feels worthless, unwanted, not important etc. I feel like the person can only understand what the homeless man is going through if they experienced it themselves. You just say it’s just one person and he will survive, but what you don't realize is that, what if there are many more of these kind of people in a country who are suffering and dying. These people are at poverty and not a lot of people know about poverty because there is not a lot of awareness on it.
Couple of days ago I saw a homeless people that seemed to be ranging from all ages. Homeless people I thought were mostly people who had lost their job as a result couldn’t pay for their living conditions such as a house and or apartment. After looking at this teenage boy has made me wonder what caused each homeless person that they have to ask for money. As I grew up, I got a better understanding of why these people were hand paddling for a living. I learned that most of these people had lost their jobs and or had bad money managing skills. Homeless people are everywhere around the world no matter the country and state. Near a gas station in Seattle I noticed a teenager who looked as if he was a senior in high school. He looked as if he was only the streets for a couple of day to a maximum of two weeks. Most homeless people I see are mostly lived like that for weeks and month. Also have that certain smell I can never forget.
The homeless population is vulnerable and are subject to discrimination. Sometimes, what becomes normal practice can violate compassionate, evidence-based care for clients in the homeless shelters. When a shelter client violates one of the behavioral rules, they will be exited for serious infractions without any notice. In the client case below, she was smoking marijuana in the bathroom and was in possession of the illegal substance. In these type of cases, there is moral ambiguity, where there is a vagueness or uncertainty of meaning as to what is the right and good thing (Lachman, 2016a).
After watching the video “Sociological Perspective Project: Homelessness,” and read the article “Community Level Characteristics Associated with Variation in Rates of Homelessness among Families and Single Adults I started to think about this more and started to read more on the topic and have I concluded , America could support its citizens better than it currently does by eliminating the progressive tax system, in which as wealth increases so does their income tax and implement tax incentives to encourage job creation. Loop holes should be eliminated in such systems as taxes, as well as welfare in order to prevent people from playing the system. The system should not be set up in such a way that filing for unemployment can be and often times is more profitable that holding a minimum wage job, which defeats the entire purpose of the welfare system. By adding these tax incentives to big business, it would encourage them to create new jobs, decreasing the number of people on welfare. While welfare should not be entirely disbanded, it should be made more restrictive and it, along...
Homeless people have a huge impact on their own but what is their impact towards other people? On the website “Understanding how Homelessness affects us all” published on November, 2009, homelessness is a big community issue. The impact that homeless people have towards others can be in 4 different types of way. One way homelessness can impact someone is by moral dimension, social cohesion, social inclusion, and social harmony. Moral dimension is when others are affected by homelessness because they have to share public areas that homeless people are living or sleeping in some of the public areas and by that those are affecting their physical, mental health, and their spirit. Social cohesion which is when everyone gains a certain amount of
I myself, a concerned citizen have seen and have had experience with homelessness. Unlike many I stopped and I will remember the day forever. It changed my outlook on the issue of homelessness. It was late at night, I was working at Dairy Queen at the time and I went out for a smoke break, out of nowhere an older woman came across the parking lot and asked me for a cigarette. I lit another cigarette and gave it to her. As she sat? down beside me in silence and the feeling I had sitting there beside her tugged at my heart. She wore clothes that were more rags
When me and my mama went to the family dollar there was a homeless man outside the door he said may I have some money. I gave him 20$ and he didn’t have no shoes on and it was cold. I told my mama in the dollar general he could've killed my dog my mama starts laughing but when I when I went back out there and so I started to feel bad for him so that's why I chose this big project because he didn't have no shoes or nothing.
The homeless situation around the world has reached epic proportions and the tropical paradise of Hawaii is no exception. Honolulu is the most densely populated cities in Hawaii, home to 387,170 of Oahu's people (US Census Bureau). “The counts estimated the total number of homelessness on Oahu as of January 2015 to be 4,903” (City and County of Honolulu Homeless Point-in-Time Count 2015 7). While there are wide variations of the meaning of homeless, homelessness goes further than not just having shelter. For those living on the streets it additionally denotes uncertainty, lack of security, and the denial of safety.
I went to the grocery store and got cases of water, bags of bread, and stuff to make the sandwiches. I had finished preparing the bags and each had granola bars, fruit, ham and cheese sandwiches, water, toothpaste, and other hygiene products. My dad and I had arrived outside the homeless shelter and were ready to pass the bags out as we saw the swarm of people. Hundreds maybe even thousands of people gathered sitting in what little shade there was. I knew we had a homeless problem, but not to this extent and the bags I had made were going to make little to no difference on the vast amount of people that had been sitting outside. I was a little disappointed at first to be completely honest because I was not prepared for that many people. If I would have known there would have been so many people I would have made more bags. We drove around the block planning on what we were going to do and saw some tents set up. My dad and I were curious as to what they were, so we got out the car and saw that these people had been giving people food and I walked up to them and asked if there was any way I could help them. These people in the tents were actually an organization called Open Arms Outreach and a few girls scouts. They gladly let us help and we brought a few cases of water and the bags I had made and helped pass them out. The organization Open Arms Outreach