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Prevention and causes of homelessness
The foster care system and its effects
Prevention and causes of homelessness
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Understanding Teen Homelessness in the Foster Care System Teen Homelessness in the United States has many negative impacts on our society that are important to understand so resolutions can be found. “National estimates of the number of homeless youth range from 1 million to more than 2 million annually”. (American Journal of Public Health, June 1994, Vol. 84, No. 6). This research paper will analyze some of the sociological causes, effects, trends, and resolutions for homeless teens and focus on the integral involvement of the foster care and child welfare institutions. According to a research article; “A homeless teen is defined as a youth ranging in age from 12-20 years of age. This teen spends at least 2 consecutive nights away from …show more content…
“Former foster youth are ten times more likely to be arrested than youth of the same age, race, and sex and one in four youth who age out of foster care will end up in jail within the first two years after leaving care.” (Family Court Review, M.A. Krinsky, pg. 250) There are many social effects on homeless teens that were once in the child welfare system. According to D. M. Duval and N. Vincent in their study: Given that research has found that homeless youth suffer from a great deal of acute and chronic emotional distress and that there is a significant number of former wards among the homeless population, attempting to better understand the development of self-psychological structure of homeless former wards from a theoretical perspective may allow for a more thorough understanding of the possible origins of the current problems of this population. (D. M. Duval, N. Vincent, pg. …show more content…
On October 7, 2008, President Bush signed into law the Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, H.R. 6893 (now P.L. 110-351). With the enactment of this landmark legislation, courts, advocates, and child welfare professionals will have new resources and opportunities to create critically needed supports to meet the needs of young adults in foster care. For the first time, effective October 1, 2010, federal funds will support state efforts to extend foster care services and oversight well beyond age eighteen. Yet these new opportunities also create new challenges, as states consider how and if to opt into this new legal landscape, and professionals in the court system and child welfare arena begin to conceptualize best practices to address the needs of these young adults. (M.A. Krinsky, pgs.
Finkelstein, M. (2005). With no direction home: homeless youth on the road and in the streets. Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Furthermore, facilities frequently concentrate on “quick-fix” interventions instead of focusing on their qualities that empower them and concentrating on long-term aspirations (Heinze & Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2009). For the most part, it is extremely hard to access health care for the youth population because they face various restrictions. It is not surprising that many homeless adolescents do not have a way of seeking services even if they are the population that needs it the most. Homeless youth are at a higher risk of adverse outcomes such as not being able to further their education, getting incarcerated, developing a mental health disorder, and engaging in alcohol dependency and unsafe sexual behavior (Heinze & Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2009). Children without a home are more prone to live in inconsistent and harsh living conditions categorized by family and school issues. Although; many homeless youths do not experience desirable outcomes housing programs and similar services serve a primary support system to help reduce homelessness. Services that promise better living conditions are shown to enhance lifestyles and a positive development into adulthood.
This paper will contain research done about foster care, including a brief history and progressing along to the system today. This research interested me because it is a professional career option after graduation. I found both positives and negatives about the foster care system that children and foster parents go through on a daily basis. As the paper progresses I will be explaining these positives and negatives in more detail. Throughout the paper I will be referencing different scholarly sources that explain foster care in different ways. Overall, this paper will show different aspects that the general public may never know about foster care.
According to the 2011 census, 105,237 people in Australia are homeless, with approximately 25% of them being young people aged 12 – 25 (Homelessness Australia 2012). However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (2011) states that these figures are severely underestimated, as many homeless young people are not recorded as so in the census. In particular, young people who “couch surf” may not be recorded as homeless, but ‘temporarily staying in another household’, although by definition, these young people may be homeless as the...
There is nearly 400,000 children in out-of-home care in the United States right now (Children’s Right). Just about every day children are being shipped in and out of foster homes and group homes. Most people want the best for children in foster care and decide to take care of them until their parents can possibly recover. The foster care system can have both a negative or positive effect on children, foster parents, and biological parents because of the gaps in the system. Foster cannot not be avoided but the some aspects of the foster care system can be avoided if the missing gaps were filled.
I have heard stories from my friends that are horrible, especially considering they were all under 18 during these events within their lives. Therefore, I believe the homeless youth in our community need more attention due to their age and lack of confidence. For example, my boyfriend Alex was homeless when we started dating. All of his siblings were taken away separately from child services due to abuse, addiction and neglect within his family. He lived in a shelter where teens were using drugs, stealing and some were even into prostitution. I do understand that not all shelters are this way, but in his experience, he has lived in three different ones and all of them had some of these factors within them. I used to believe there were many options for the homeless, especially teenagers, but from my own second-hand experiences there are really not that many alternatives. “Sometimes it is safer to sleep on the street than some homeless shelters we came across”, suggests Alex Black, a former homeless youth. These shelters can be horrifying to the point that many teens, including Alex, run away. Society looks down on the homeless, creating a barrier surrounding our social structure, placing them at the bottom. Many people in our community believe it is not their place to help, some just are selfish or look the other way and keep on walking.“Whoever closes
In the United States there are approximately 397,000 children in out-of home care, within the last year there was about 640,000 children which spent at least some time in out-of-home care. More than 58,000 children living in foster care have had their biological parental rights permanently terminated (Children’s Rights, 2014). Due to the rising number of children in foster care and the growing concerns of the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and families, the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 was signed into law. On November 19, 1997, President Bill Clinton signed the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, to improve the safety of children, to promote adoption and other permanent homes for children who need them, and to support families (Child Welfare League of America). The Adoption and Safe Families Act also promotes adoption by offering incentive payments for States. During the FY of 1999-2003 the payment to states which had exceeded the average number of adoptions received $20 million (Child Welfare League of America). The ASFA improved the existing federal child welfare law to require that the child’s health and safety be a “paramount” concern in any efforts made by the state to preserve or reunify the child’s family, and to provide new assurances that children in foster care are safe (Shuman, 2004).
For many teenagers, their 18th birthday is an exciting time in their lives. They are finally becoming a legal adult, and are free from the rules and restrictions created under their parents. But not all teens feel the same joy about this coming of age. For the hundreds of thousands of children living in foster care in the United States, this new found freedom brings anxiety and fear. Where will they live after turning 18? How will they get the medications they may need? How will they find a job with little to no experience? How will they put themselves through school? Aging out of foster care is a serious issue among America’s youth. Every year, 20,000 children will age out with nowhere to go, being expected to be able to survive on their own (Reilly 728). Young adults face various obstacles upon aging out of foster care, such as multiple health problems/issues, homelessness, and finding/maintaining a job.
Garrett Therolf said “Children in foster homes overseen by private agencies are one-third more likely to be physically, mentally, or sexually abused than children in homes overseen by the state” (qtd. in White). The debate on whether or not to privatize the foster care system is ongoing and is an excellent source for debate. While privatizing the foster care system does seem to have its advantages, such as the convenience, they are heavily outweighed by the many negative aspects of a privatized system. Privatizing the foster care system is an overall negative idea due to the fact that it turns desperate children into business pawns putting them at higher risk for many kinds of abuse. Privatization increases abuse and neglect among helpless
The youth homelessness population is increasing because of the many challenges that these children or teens face in everyday life; It also continues getting larger every year because of the many youth who are getting into dangerous situations that force them to be homeless or thru their own choosing. One third of the homeless population is between the ages of 16-24, which is incredibly young and it is the prime years for an adolescent or young adu...
The homeless population across the United States has become a problem, not a problem that is a large burden on the country, but a problem that persistently takes from our economies greatest potential. According to the International Journal of Psychosocial Research, the estimated homeless population in the United States can range from 600,000 to 2.5 million. The research conducted that 1.37 million of the total homeless population are children under the age of 18, 40% are families with children, 41 % are single males and 14% are single females. With government agencies seeking to lower and ultimately eliminate the homeless population, resources are being expended in order to discover how. With multiple government grants and large amounts of money being put into resources, there are constantly evolving solutions that present themselves. With these solutions being implemented throughout the country, a positive outcome being reached would source the solution to a worldwide problem. When the homeless population in the United States is reviewed, there are major occurrences that are repeating. The four main socio economic factors that affect the homeless population in the United States are alienation of the homeless, substance abuse, government involvement and police brutality.
Homelessness can result from children running away, being abandoned by parents, extreme poverty within the family and/or unsafe/unstable living conditions. Being in situations where a child has worry about where they are going to sleep or where there next meal may come from gives them little time, if any, to focus or even think about attending school. In addition, attending school means a need for the upkeep of personal hygiene, having clean clothes and most importantly transportation to and from school, which can add more stress to a child outside of the fact they are homeless. Not having these things causes high levels of depression, anxiety and low self-esteem. Th...
Giffords, E., Alonso, C., & Bell, R. (2007). A Transitional Living Program for Homeless Adolescents: A Case Study. Child & Youth Care Forum, 36(4), 141-151. doi:10.1007/s10566-007-9036-0.
To many outsiders, the foster care system may appear to be a safe haven for those children that are abused or abandoned by their birth family. This is correct, but the system with which it is based, has many flaws. A background check is mandatory for all foster parents, but a test to see if a child 's temperament matches that caregiver 's parenting style, is not. Now, this is seen as a minor issue, but there is not enough evidence to support this. Plus, there are many other, much worse reasons, why the system is not perfect. Altogether, the foster care system and a multitude of its rules are flawed and may actually be negatively affecting foster children.
Hudson, Angela L., and Karabi Nandy. "Comparisons of Substance Abuse, High-risk Sexual Behavior and Depressive Symptons Among Homeless youth with and without a History of Foster Care Placement." EBSCOhost. EBSCO, Oct 2012. Web.11 Dec.2013.