In a rich nation such as the United States, homelessness emerges from much more than just poverty. Homelessness exists when people lack secure, steady, and suitable places to live in. The term 'Homeless' also describes someone's life as isolated, without the usual ties of family, work, and the overall community. A homeless person might live in abandoned buildings, areas under bridges, bus stations, cheap hotels, emergency shelters, streets, or even subways or tramways.
The real questions are: What is the impact of homelessness in our society? What’s being done to address homelessness in our community? Why can’t people help them? What do these numbers tell us? The rich communities must lend a helping hand to those who are less fortunate. Sadly though, many of them cannot even take a minute out of their “busy” lives to lend a helping hand; clearly greed and selfishness have taken over. It hurts me to see people suffering while others are enjoying the luxuries of life. Volunteer work, advocacy efforts, financial or material contributions, and continued self-education are all important and needed as we work our way to a solution. Homelessness in the U.S is caused by mental illness and is a result of a lack of government services and in this case homelessness will not terminate without the support services to help the people in need. “The persisting spectacle of homeless people on American streets is a continuing indictment of our collective failure to make the basic ingredients of civilized society accessible to all citizens.” (William R. Breakey, MD, Psychiatrist Health Care for the Homeless.)
Many things contribute to the resulting number of homeless people, however the main reasons for homelessness are unemployment, low income,...
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... 129.6 Million plastic bottles per day which is 47.3 Billion plastic bottles per year. About 80% of those plastic bottles end up in a landfill!” The plastic bottles would be filled up with sand and molded together with mud or cement. These houses would be bullet proof, fire proof, and would maintain a comfortable indoor temperature of 64 degrees in the summer time. It would take about 14,000 bottles to build a two bedroom, 1200 square foot home. The United States disposes of enough plastic bottles to build 9,257 of these two bedroom houses per day!
The word homeless could be cut into two separate parts, home and less. Seeing that it is actually a really important word. The first part, less, meaning less fortunate and the second half, home meaning a house to be sheltered and feel warmth in. when putting the two words together you get less fortunate without a roof.
Homelessness can be defined as the lack of a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residence. Furthermore, homelessness also entails people who are people who are at risks of being evicted from their residential houses or people who are discharged from institution such as hospital or prison and they have nowhere to go. Families that experience homelessness usually have limited education since lack of adequate educatio...
Kathleen’s book brings up many detailed facts about how homelessness is a never ending situation due to mental illness, poverty, social structure and political parties. She discusses how much of society groups Illegal immigrants, mentally ill, jobless and many other categories under the homeless category.
One needs to recognize that homelessness impact’s a person’s ability to enjoy basic needs and freedoms. It has important consequences for the way that society perceives and treats people. One of the biggest effects of homelessness is the breakdown of a community itself. Many people do not
Here in Tahoe, we are lucky enough to experience a great quality of life, and only a few have to face the horrible life of poverty and homelessness. However, nationwide, even right outside the basin, homelessness is a growing epidemic across the country. There are many ways one can become homeless; for the most part poverty. There are also different concentrations of homeless in different types of terrain, such as urban or suburban areas. Last, there is the ever- growing homeless population, and how much money it costs us for others to live in poverty. These are the questions we ask ourselves about homelessness, and the only way we can help is to know the facts about this lingering subject.
The term homelessness is complex to define. Homelessness is defined in different ways in different countries. Merriam Webster (2013) defines homelessness as having no home or a permanent place of residence. Shelter (2013) also defines the term homelessness and describes homelessness as the condition of people without a regular dwelling, where this means any building, structure, manufactured home or mobile home, or part thereof, used and occupied for human habitation or intended to be so used as a sleeping place at night.
In the word homeless there are two root words, home and less. Home is what most people would define as the place where they live, or grew up. Less, simply means not as much as. When you combine the two together homeless equals someone who grew up in a home that was held to less standards than what they would normally be held up to. For example, someone who is homeless could live in a box, it sounds terrible but unfortunately it is a part of our reality. Not everyone can afford to live in a house, pay mortgage, and all the other expenses that come with the responsibility of owning a house, or home. Today homelessness still has an affect on many people.
Homelessness is a vast predicament in America and around the world. It is severely overlooked as people don’t really think of homelessness as real world problem. However, there have been ways that people have tried to fix the problem. They have come up with homeless shelters, emergency shelters, food banks and soup kitchens. These solutions have limitations though, which will hopefully come to an end.
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).
The National Alliance to End Homelessness identified under 600,000 people who are homeless in the nation, in the past year. “This translates to a national rate of homelessness of fewer than 18 homeless persons out of every 10,000 persons in the general public on a single night “(National Alliance,
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 has different meanings to different people; someone who has never been homeless might think homelessness is a person who lives on the street, in a tent or in a box. Many people don’t realize that there are a number of homeless people, who couch surf with friends, family or the ones who live in motels which are unaccountable in the numbers of homeless people. People including families with children, seniors, single parents, youths and those that are single are living in accommodations that are below standards and consider themselves as homeless.
Homelessness has become a serious problem in today’s society. Despite the organizations that help multitudes of homeless people, homelessness is continually increasing. In recent years, America’s culture has been changing due to economic, political, and social issues. These issues have caused a lot of stress on America resulting in abject poverty in several cities. Poverty is not nationwide, but if dealt with lightly, the affects can be catastrophic. Homelessness is increasing more than ever, and research proves that changing culture contributes to rising amount of homelessness.
The biggest issue with homelessness is affordable housing, people have a hard time paying bills when they do not make enough money or rent/mortgage is increasing. Most people make minimum wage or an average amount that is much less than the hourly wage expected for renters/owners. “The National Low Income Housing Coalition estimates that the 2013 Housing Wage is $18.79, exceeding the $14.32 hourly wage earned by the average renter by almost $4.50 an hour, and greatly exceeding wages earned by low income renter households” (National
Homelessness is associated with a culture unique to individuals who have, unstable housing or no housing who live on the streets, public places, shelters, halfway homes or in their cars. Homelessness is defined statistically as a state of not having a place to stay (Ravenhill, 2016). The statistical definition of homelessness conflicts with the perception of homeless people because for some homeless individuals the concept of home refers to a refuge, safe place, relationship with other homeless individuals, a unique personal space or an emotional and psychological refuge (Ravenhill). Even though homeless individuals do not have a stable place to stay they may have a place they call home.
Homelessness is descriptive condition of someone without a permanent or regular dwelling. Homeless people most often are not in a position to acquire as well as maintain a safe, regular, and adequate housing. Being that one of the most fundamental human needs is shelter, it is important and health for every human to at least acquire one. Unfortunately, it is becoming rather a difficulty to own a home in the current century given the economic recessions frequently occurring in almost globally. Although the legal definitions for homelessness may vary from country to country, the central idea includes people whose primary nighttime residence could be a homeless shelter, a domestic violence shelter, cardboard boxes or ad hoc housing circumstances. They could also be people who take shelter at night in a private or public place that is not primarily designed or suitable for use as a regular sleeping housing for humans.