Government Funded Programs Other government funded programs that assist families with housing is public housing. Public housing is established to provide decent and safe rental housing for eligible low-income families, the elderly, and persons with disabilities. Public housing comes in all sizes and types, from scattered single family houses to high rise apartments for the elderly. There are approximately 1.3 million units of occupied public housing managed by some 3,400 public housing authorities. Section 8 a vouchers and project-based rental assistance also assist families in living expense payments. Public housing developments provide affordable homes to 2.2 million low-income Americans. The federal government funds public housing through the …show more content…
Department of Agriculture estimated that 17 million of US households in America were food insecure. This means that the households a difficult time during the course of the year providing enough food for all their family members due to a lack of resources. Fortunately, there are food distribution programs that aid individuals and households with the food insecurities such Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), as well as Foodbanks around the united states. SNAP formally known as the Food Stamp Program, SNAP provides help to 46 million people each year. WIC is a supplemental nutrition program that woman who qualify receive when pregnant, this benefit is limited from child’s birth up to up to 5 years after their child is born. Mother receives milk for the baby as well as nutritious items for herself like milk, cheese, cereals, juices, and vegetables. Foodbanks are also located all over America; however, struggle with keeping up with the increase of those in need., Twelve states exhibited statistically significantly higher household food-insecurity rates than the U.S. national average 2013-2015 13.7
With more and more people becoming unemployed and applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), it is imperative that we understand the benefits as well as problems this causes. Even while researching this topic and talking to some of my family and friends about it, it surprised me the amount of those who do not understand food stamps. Coming from the SNAP website, “Food stamps offer nutritional assistance to millions of eligible low-income individuals and families and provides economic benefits to communities” (United States). This program helps millions of people per year and gives upwards of $75 billion and rising. With the prices of food increasing due to inflation, beneficiaries are receiving around $400 at most per month. Using the Electronic benefit transfer systems (EBT), beneficiaries can buy goods from a grocery store using a credit-card like transaction, which takes the money off of their card. The benefits are received monthly on a specific date and vary in amounts from person to person. One family may receive $300 per month because they have three kids and need the extra money, while another may receive $100 or less depending on financial status. The application process includes completing and filing an application form, being interviewed, and verifying facts crucial to determining eligibility. In the past, these applications did not require a drug screening to get benefits, but more and more states are adopting this. There are many drawbacks to SNAP as well such as taking money from working people’s paychecks every week and people abusing the system. Talking about a very opinionated subject, we must remove bias and answer whether or not the Food Stamp system should be limited.
The Future for Chicago Public Housing In big cities across America, the consensus is public housing doesn't work. And in Chicago, it's coming down. Chicago began using federal housing dollars to blow up or knock down high-rise public housing in 1993. The plan shifted into high gear when the city signed a $1.5 billion deal with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.
For centuries people have relied on public housing each year in Canada. Public housing is a known problem that does not get talked about often. Public housing is defined as a federal, provincial or local housing program that is provided for people with low incomes (XXX).
Living in the United States most people rely on the government to construct our society to better the people. The gap between rich and poor in our society significantly varies. In America, the government offers special programs to help those who fall below the poverty line. This is well known as welfare. The word welfare comes from a positive definition known as “well-being”, but most Americans would debate that welfare has become a disaster to our society as they increased welfare dependency, illegitimate babies, and family break-ups. In fact I agree with these clams, poverty programs have been abused by many Americans, causing more pressures and strains to American welfare.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is a Federal food assistance program that can be traced to 1933. Since then SNAP has helped millions of Americans, who live below the poverty line, to purchase food and has been a safety net for Americans who have experienced hard times due to economic downturns. SNAP is an amazing federal program that without it, millions of Americans would be starving and economic activity would be down.
In fiscal year 2006, the HUD, Department of Housing and Urban Development, was presented a budget by the Bush Administration consisting of $528.5 billion for homeless programs (Romeo 1). The problem of homelessness and extreme poverty is not a new occurrence; but in past years more extreme measures have been taken to combat the issue as more people become homeless. Expensive social programs and housing developments for the homeless have been created to help battle the increasing issue. Homelessness is an expensive problem that will never end; furthermore, the condition of homeless people in America is affected by the type of education they receive, the state of the economy, and the amount of funds that are available to house and feed them.
Welfare can be defined as health, happiness, and good fortune; well-being; Prosperity; and Financial or other aid provided, especially by the government, to people in need (Merriam-Webster, 2014). It can be very beneficial to people in need of it. Tim Prenzler stated that, “Welfare systems are often seen as providing a ‘safety net’ that prevents citizens falling below a minimum standard of living (2012, p2). Everyone is able to use is if they are in need of it. People have successfully used welfare to get out of their slum, and started to support themselves. Others have decided to not try to get out of that slum, and live off that welfare. They decided that they didn’t have to try, and let the government support them. Welfare is a good tool for people to get back on their feet, but shouldn’t be that persons steady income.
In the year 2015, around 40 million U.S. citizens were food insecure (Randall para. 3). Food insecurity can be defined in paragraph 3 by “[having] difficulty at some time during the year providing enough food for all their members due to a lack of resources. This 12.7% of American citizens also contains another group - children. Aged 10-17, 6.8 million adolescents struggle with a food insecurity. There have been several years of cuts to the social programs designed to help these people, along with the Great Recession continuing to leave an impact on the U.S. economy (para. 6). Under the Obama administration, $8.6 billion was cut from the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as Food Stamps. From 1993-2001 under the Clinton administration, former President Bill Clinton’s administration “gutted the welfare system” (para. 15). Because of these budget cuts, the families who rely on food assistance from the government have been allotted less throughout the years. From a sociological perspective, the concepts of sociological imagination, class stratification, and social location are in effect when it comes to child hunger in the United States. Being hungry is an issue larger than any one individual can control.
The United States is known as the wealthiest country in the world. But, there are many people that can't afford to buy food for their families, many are also homeless. “While hunger affects people of all ages, it's particularly devastating for children even short-term episodes of hunger can cause lasting damage."(“Child Nutrition Programs") Child hunger in the United States is caused by poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, and food shortage; however there are many solutions to this problem like FRAC strategies, food banks, summer feeding programs, and backpack feeding programs.
Obviously a question that will arise is where the funding will come from, well mainly from the lovely thing called taxpayers’ money. Its time they put a stop to seemingly wasteful projects and integrate it to ones beneficial to the society as a whole. Thereafter, once they are housed the assistance program will continue their support by linking them with employment, and attaining rapid access to other needed services such as Medicaid, and food stamps. Some people simply require a little push to get them back on their feet. Once affordable housing is made more available along with the assisting that helps maintain it, all excuses should be out the door.
Overall, they argue that the goals of rent control can be reached if they are
Food stamp organizations help a variety of people from the disabled, single mothers, children and to those who cannot find—or are unable to—work. There are many out there who for some reason are unable to obtain necessary food, and without these programs, these people wouldn’t be able to survive in the money hungry world. Though these programs are put in place to ensure that people are being properly fed, there are people out there that think people use it only to abuse it. Single mothers are just one of the groups that gets a lot of harassment and are looked down upon. These individual’s are looked down upon due to the stereotypes and the overwhelming concern of them ruining the system due to a few. According to Poverty and the Homeless they said only 9 percent of single mothers stayed in there programs for more than seven years and less than 10 percent stayed more than eight years, also saying that most of them were young single mothers with children under the age of three (Williams). Single mothers are not the reason that the economy is going under, people just need an escape goat to blame so they don’t see their own ignorance. Mothers shouldn’t be wrongly accused for needing food stamps, because they could need them for a number of reasons. There are mothers out there that have been divorced and the husbands don’t pay child support. An article online talked about how this mother had recently separated from her husband and she was on food stamps. Her children didn’t know because she didn’t want to burden them with any more than they already had. She said, “I sold everything that wasn’t tied down. I eventually found three part-time jobs that would allow me to be with my sons when they got home from school, trying to keep their lives as structured and normal as possible — plus saving me $100+ a week in childcare, which is substantial when you make
According to the American Psychological Association, “In 2010, the poverty threshold, or poverty line, was 22,314 dollars for a family of four” (2). People living in poverty may be forced to depend on public assistance programs such as food stamps, or more formally known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP. On the exterior, this program seems to benefit hungry families, but in all actually it is actually facilitating their obesity. The formerly mentioned family of four would be qualified to receive a maximum of 688 dollars a month in food stamps (North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services). That equates to just over 170 dollars a week or 40 dollars per family member. A paltry amount such as this forces families to make difficult decisions regarding the amount and type of food they provide their family.
It is regarded as temporary help and it is attached with stigma. Snap would be considered residual welfare. Institutional welfare is seen as normal way of fulfilling social needs. There tends to be no stigma attached and it is services that all categories of people. As recently announced lunch will be free for every child in NYC public schools regardless of income. Prior to this school year some families had to pay for lunch depending on income. Additionally for the children that did qualify for the free lunch sometimes skipped out of not eating for fear of bullying or the stigma that comes along with subsidized school meals. This universal lunch program will meet the universal needs of children. Universal welfare are services that do not require children or families to meet specific eligibility criteria. It is available for all and attracts all categories of people such as public education. On the other hand, selective programs are eligibility determined on a case-to-case basis. In order for one to qualify for SNAP they are screened
produces more than enough food to feed all of its citizens. Unfortunately, most of the food produced and resources used is put to waste; this extensive waste proves to be one of the most critical issues affect the U.S. today. The food shortages exist more as a lack of access to resources rather than a technical lack of food. Research goes on to show that food is stratified based on levels of income. Income gaps at the federal level only further contribute to the food insecurity issue. Furthermore, the welfare system is unable to prevent a sufficient safety net for those at lower income levels. There are several common themes discussed in welfare policy: compassion for the poor versus deterrence, private charity versus tax-supported welfare, local versus state, federal authority, symptoms versus causes, welfare reform versus, benefit levels, and means-tested programs versus entitlements. Food assistance programs can be looked at by each era, changing every time. Current welfare and food assistance programs are governed by legislation passed in 1966 by President Clinton, known as the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. Unfortunately, although the cost of food assistance programs appears high, they have a minimal effect on the individual and family. There are a few key elements vital to any successful welfare policy: adequate minimum wage, increased tax credits, subsidized housing, health care protection, as well as support for child care, training programs, and treatment of substance abuse and mental health