Urban Homelessness Case Study

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In New York City, on practically every block there is at least one homeless person. There are many living in public parks, subway stations, and the train and bus stations. In 2014 “ the number of homeless people in the city reached 67,810, with all but about 3,000 living in shelters.” “The homeless population continued to grow, swelling in almost every category-individuals, families and the chronically homeless.” (Schlossberg, Tatiana). “There were “60,352 homeless people [living] in the streets of Manhattan in November of 2014. 14,519 [were] homeless families [and] 25,640 [were] homeless children” (Coalition for the homeless). There are multiple ways to tell if somebody is homeless, but there are two very distinct characteristics in NYC. …show more content…

Picture the homeless, a nonprofit organization founded by homeless people, “went around a third of the city in 2014 and found that [they] can house around 200,000 homeless people even more” (Gardella, Chris). Taking these boarded up areas might be a complicated idea, but they would be able to house various homeless people who are sleeping on the streets today or in other public areas which are allowed and not allowed. Since the nonprofit organization found that they could house about 200,000 homeless people in just a third of the city this means that around 1 million homeless people could finally be housed. Homeless people are people too they are just like us, but they grew up in different circumstance, lost their job or were not able to be educated. They have a life but their lives might not be like ours and for the government to say that “it would be too expensive” (Gardella), to reorganize the way we treat homeless might be money worth spending and in the end cost us less. If the government does actually help this would be a great way to decrease the number of homeless people in NYC. Unfortunately, there are not enough beds and many live on the streets making it unsafe for people who live in the neighborhood and therefore having a specialized shelter would be a good idea. Not only could this be a worthwhile option but also, the government might also be able to create shelters for the ill and injured as they have special locations for people with

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