Homelessness is all around the world, and many people have either dealt with the issue or had first-hand experience with it. Thus causes everyone to think about the possible solutions to such an important social and economic problem. Whether or not anyone wants to support or ignore the issue, it will always be there. However, the youth population is on the rise among the homeless. While the exact number of youth among the homeless is hard to determine, given various information about homelessness available and the age range that is considered youth, a 2012 survey from the Department of Education shows that 52,950 unaccompanied homeless youth were reported through school-based programs (Sparks 31). Homelessness among youth can be overcome or at least reduced, by reducing family conflict, severe economic hardship and abuse.
Homelessness has always been seen as people just being lazy, and choosing not to work. In the 1600s transient individuals or groups were thought to be “morally deficient”, punished by God for their undesirable behaviors. Back then in order to live in a town you would have to prove yourself to a “community father”, before they would consider your residency. Present day individuals must also prove “self worth” in order to live in any society. The complex structure dictated by others and followed by complacent individuals gives rise to multiple variables that causes homelessness.
Most people who have lived with family have at one point in their lives come across family conflict, especially where their views clash. Family conflicts and miscommunications have often been problems between family members. Taking sexual orientation as an example, many gay adolescents in today’s society feel the negative backlash of e...
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Murphy, Patrick T. “A Trap of Welfare and Child Abuse.” New York Times 8 Nov. 2000, 19. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Slesnick, Natasha. “Predictors of Homelessness Among Street Living Youth.” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 37.4 (2008): 465-474. Academic Search Premier. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Solomon, Frank. “Welfare (Opposing Viewpoints Series).” Policy and Practice 66.4 (2008): 35. Academic Search Complete. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
Sparks, Sarah D. “Schools Still See Surges in Homeless Students.” Education Digest 79.7 (2014): 31-35. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
Tyler, Kimberly, and Lisa A. Melander. “A Qualitative Study of the Formation and Composition of Social Networks among Homeless Youth.” Journal of Research on Adolescence 21.4 (2011): 802-817. Academic Search Premier. Web. 17 Mar. 2014.
This shows that homelessness is not a one stop shop. Significant factors and actions have to come into play for someone to become homeless. The theses goes into great detail on the lack of studies and analysis from past years. She hits hard on the fact that many homeless people are seniors or mentally ill people. These people have a hard time taking care of themselves and rely on faulty systems including, care homes, financial aid, disability and ect. General triggers from past events in life that were traumatising can also play a huge role in homelessness.
National Center for Homeless Education. (2013, October). Education for Homeless Children and Youths Program. Greensboro: U.S Department of Education. Retrieved from http://www2.ed.gov/programs/homeless/data-comp-0910-1112.pdf
Living without a home can put an individual at a high risk of finding themselves in dangerous situations. Among these are the possibility of: being harmed or exploited by others, raped or sexually abused, or doing illegal things, such as prostitution or drug dealing, in order to make a living (“Being”). Along with these perils comes the problematic issue of attending school. Fifty percent of homeless youth, aged sixteen or older, reported dropping out of school, being expelled, or suspended (“NRS”). Many times a youth’s attention will be more focused on their basic needs, food and shelter, and schooling no longer is a necessity to them. When an adolescent does, however, wish to enroll and attend school they are met with restrictions that prevent them from getting an opportunity. In ...
Youth homelessness in Ontario is not a new phenomenon, it has become more and more severe over the past 20 years. “One third of homeless individuals on the streets are under the age of 25”(Cino, Rose). It is a significant social justice issue in Canada. Within our community people are increasingly aware of the sight of youth sleeping in parks, asking for money and sitting on sidewalks. Youth homelessness in Ontario is primarily caused by tragic life occurrences such as abuse, illness or unemployment.
Homeless Youth: Characteristics, Contributing Factors, and Service Options. Journal Of Human Behavior In The Social Environment, 20(2), 193-217. doi:10.1080/10911350903269831
As previously discussed, homelessness among youth in the Houston / Harris County area is a growing population with far reaching consequences for this group. They can be identified as a cultural group as they identify with others who have shared experiences and commonalities. Some of the serious struggles, identified in part I, homeless youth face are the increased probability of becoming victimized on the streets, higher risk of being infected with a STD or HIV, becoming pregnant, entering the criminal justice system, not having access to medical treatment, employment, housing, or education and job training. Without resiliency, the bleak outlook on life has the power to destroy their self-efficacy leaving them with low self-esteem. Both tangible, as well as, intangible resources have been identified to assist youth facing homelessness. Likewise, many studies have been conducted regarding intervention plans and their effectiveness that show great promise. Specifically, this intervention plan will look at a strengths based method, an out-reach model, and an alternative approach to formulate an intervention method.
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...
Youth become homeless for a number of reasons including: family violence and neglect, rejection due to sexual orientation or gender identity, the overwhelmed child welfare system and extreme poverty. These youth almost always have experienced unimaginable abuse and trauma, in their homes, their communities, and on the street. It is the Runaway and Homeless Youth Act (RHYA)-funded services and programs that help to rectify the deep injustices that homeless youth experience on a daily basis.
Homelessness….. Many assume those who are homeless took part in some type of drug or alcohol abuse which lead them to become homeless. It is an ongoing situation that has not been fully resolved in order to lower the risk of individuals of the youth population becoming homeless. The age group for homeless individuals who qualify as youth is nineteen years of age and under. In the United States, dysfunctional families are occurring more frequent, which is a vital reason adolescents are running away from their homes. This alone puts many of our youth at risk of becoming homeless. When adolescents leave their homes, it decreases their chances of having a smooth transition into adulthood. Some adolescents may leave their home because
Reports of this issue have been seen since the 1600s. There have been many events in history that have led to people being homeless. From wars to natural disasters, homelessness has been a prevailing issue that was not addressed when it first began. Society in past eras believed, as many do today, that homelessness was due to personal circumstances. The term given to this population of homeless or homelessness began in the early 1980s. Homeless, however, wasn’t the only term used to identify this population. “Vagrants, vagabonds, tramps, beggars, bums… (Ocobock,).” All of these names given to them were not only for society’s use, the terms were actually legal names to describe them. There were harsh vagrancy laws created to handle the
Homeless situations are a concern because there are a number of homeless children in the United States and continues to rise (McDaniel, 2012). Homeless people struggle to survive because they live in housing that is not livable or does not have a home and therefore, they live in cardboard boxes, in the alley, or wherever they can find shelter. In reality, this affects the ability for a
Based off the attention from modern media, youth homelessness has been on an unfortunate upslope in the United States within the past decade. Various factors tie into why this issue is becoming more prominent such as low income households being unable to afford children, LGBT youth rejection, and domestic abuse leading to children leaving home. Now, vagrancy has a severely negative impact on the development of young people as it inhibits them from developing academically, socially, and mentally and can also expose them to diseases and potentially various types of abuse, such as sexual and substance abuse. This is an issue that should be addressed, for the rising generations are America’s future, and so investing in the overall well-being of the
Homelessness is often characterized as adults living on the streets taking shelter beneath the interwoven overpasses of the city or standing alongside busy intersections begging for money. Yet, children, those under 18 years of age, are generally not associated with the homeless status as they are invisible, not seen by the general public with their homeless counterparts taking up residence in make-shift housing. Nonetheless, there is a large percent of youth who meet the guidelines for being deemed homeless. The website, findyouthinfo.gov, says the U.S Department of Education defines a homeless youth as one whom:
Although The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act is a program that guarantees education for the homeless youth population, many homeless do not receive the proper services they need because they are not aware of available resources (Heinze & Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2009). Many homeless youths do not have a safe place to stay during the night or do not have any family or friends to rely on for support. In addition, approximately 7% of youth members in the United States are left without a home because of high dependence on an addictive substance or because they have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder (Heinze & Jozefowicz-Simbeni, 2009). Services that could provide shelter for the youth are often underused. Research in homeless youth
Economic problems such as being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of housing had lead people to live on the streets. Many of the homeless are women that have become divorced or have left home because of physical abuse. These women have no education because they have not been given the chance to go and get the education that it takes nowadays to get the job, so they are forced to live on the streets. They have no family to help them and they are left with no other choice. People with mental illnesses also become homeless quite often. These people are incapable of handling the stress of living on their own. These people get kicked out of their homes and are to ashamed to go to their families because of their illness, so we see them on the streets struggling to stay warm. Teenage mothers are also forced to live on the streets because their families will not help them. The fathers are not there and that forces them to live on the streets. So they must resort to prostitution to pay for the food that their young ones need to stay alive. There are many other people that become homeless for many different reasons. Some of these people can not help becoming homeless. Some of these people are the illegal immigrants that come here from other places to get a better life but end up not having enough money to make it in this hard world that we live in.