Hunger,
In the United States, there are a lot of people that need help, whether it is needing food help, or housing help they are not getting the help they need and not just they are suffering from it. Homelessness In the united states and in the city of Puyallup, Washington it is a big problem that it seems like barley anyone is trying to help solve the problem, and it is a problem that needs to have some effort put into it to help resolve the problem and not many people are looking for the solution. I did find a site that is trying to help find housing, shelters and food banks, http://www.homelessnessinamerica.com/.
Causes of homelessness,
Poverty is the biggest cause because the cost of housing is too high for people making minimum wage buy food and pay all their bills. Alcohol and Substance Abuse is another big cause of homelessness because the cost of living is really expensive and treatment is really expencive. Criminal Background is a hard thing to deal with because people with criminal backgrounds have a hard time getting a job because they have been conviceted of a crime and most buisnesses do not want to give them a chance.
Change in family status is a big problem loseing a family member that is the bread winner is detromental because you may not be able to pay your bills and when you do not pay your bills you will not be able to keep power on or pay your rent. Loss of job really causes tight situated because when you lose your job you can no longer pay the bills, and when the money you have saved if you have any saved doesn’t last forever. Eviction by family is a big problem to teens today because when they turn 18 their parents that have not taught them anything about living in the real world then they kick them out a...
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"Hunger in America: 2013 United States Hunger and Poverty Facts." Hunger in America: 2013 United States Hunger and Poverty Facts. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2014. .
"Homeless Statistics in the United States On The Rise." Poverty Living Homeless Statistics in the United States On The Rise Comments. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2014. .
"Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)." Food and Nutrition Service. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2014. .
"Senior Hunger | Feeding America." Feeding America. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2014. .
This can range from divorce to mental illnesses (“Factors Contributing To Homelessness”). In some statistics taken from The Homeless Resource Network, the biggest cause of homelessness is from the loss of job or income someone is bringing in. If someone were to lose a job unexpectedly, they could have trouble finding a job with the same income they were used to earning, making it hard to keep necessities in their life. Another important element that contributes to people becoming homeless is the use of drugs and alcohol. Even though most people who have one of these addictions do not become homeless, it becomes a problem when they are poor and the addictions take over their life (“Homelessness in
Tunstall, L. (2009). Homelessness: an overview. EBSCO Publishing Service Selection Page. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from http://web.ebscohost.com/pov/detail?hid=119&sid=d5f751fa-0d0d-4ed1-8deb-483e701af50c%40sessionmgr111&vid=3&bdata=Jmxhbmc9ZW4tY2Emc2l0ZT1wb3YtY2Fu#db=p3h&AN=28674966
As stated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, “the test of our progression is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.” Many people may agree with this statement considering that the United States is such a wealthy country and in 2012, 46.5 million people were living in poverty in the United States and 15% of all Americans and 21.8% of children under age eighteen were in poverty.The honest truth is that many people do not know the conditions this group of people must live in on a daily basis because of the small number of people who realize the struggle there is not a great amount of service. In the article Too stressed for Success, the author Kevin Clarke asks the question “What is the cost of being poor in America?” and follows the question by explaining the great deals of problems the community of poverty goes through daily by saying, “Researchers have long known that because of a broad reduction in retail and other consumer choices experienced by America's poor, it is often simply more expensive to be poor in the United States.
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.
"Overview of Homelessness In America." Homelessness In America. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013. .
...alition for the Homeless. (2011, November 1). National Coalition for the Homeless. Retrieved November 21, 2013, from http://www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/hunger.html
This great nation of awesome power and abundant resources is losing the battle against homelessness. The casualties can be seen on the street corners of every city in American holding an ?I will work for food? sign. Homeless shelters and rescue missions are at full capacity. There is no room at the inn for the nation?s indigent. Anyone who has studied this issue understands that homelessness is a complex problem. Communities continue to struggle with this socio-economic problem while attempting to understand its causes and implement solutions. The public and private sectors of this country are making a difference in the lives of the homeless by addressing the issues of housing, poverty and education.
McNamara, Robert Hartmann. "Homelessness." Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Social Issues. Ed. Michael Shally-Jensen. Vol. 3: Family and Society. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. 1024-1031. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 2 May 2014. .
Today SNAP is the new name of the federal Food Stamp Program. “SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The name was changed to SNAP to meet the needs of clients, which includes a focus on nutrition and an increase in the amount of benefit received” ("supplemental nutrition,"2011). Another detail about SNAP is its ability to respond to changing needs caused by economic cycles or natural emergencies on the local, state and national levels. It is second to unemployment insurance in its responsiveness to economic changes. SNAP is very helpful to low-income families’ monthly resources, increasing the chance families is able to meet basic needs.
According to the U.S. Conference of Mayors (2008) there are several key factors that cause homelessness and they differ between families and single adults. For families, the causes are lack of affordable housing, poverty, unemployment, low-paying jobs, domestic violence, mental illness and substance abuse. For single adults the causes are substance abuse, lack of affordable housing, mental illness, poverty, unemployment, and low-paying jobs. The top things needed to combat homelessness is more housing for people with disabilities, better paying employment opportunities, and more substance abuse services.
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).
For families, the three most common causes are lack of affordable housing, unemployment and poverty. For single individuals, the three common causes are substance abuse, lack of affordable housing and mental illness (“facts”). “Thirty eight percent report alcohol use problems. Twenty six percent report other drug use problems. Thirty nine percent report some form of mental health problems. Sixty six percent report either substance use and/or mental health problems. Three percent report having HIV/AIDS. Twenty six percent report acute health problems other than HIV/AIDS such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, or sexual transmitted disease. Forty six percent report chronic health conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes or cancer” (“Facts”). About one billion and one hundred million people in developing countries have insignificant access to water. Two billion and six hundred million lack fundamental sanitation. About two in three people lacking access to clean water have to survive on less than two dollars a day. One in three live on less than a dollar a day (Snah). This shows there are different causes and people experience problems in their lives. Any one of us can become homeless in a matter of seconds because “one bad circumstance or series of unlucky or unfortunate events can lead to homelessness” (Bolster). Four to five times as many people experience homelessness in one year than in one day. Eight hundred thousand is a lot of
Food Research and Action Center. Relationship Between Poverty and Overweight or Obesity. 2010. Web. 21 Oct. 2013.
United States Department of Agriculture. "School Meals." Child Nutrition Programs. USDA, 23 Dec. 2013. Web. 26 Jan. 2014.
As people are facing addictions, mental illness, lack money management skill, unemployed, or relocating to a new area are the reasons people become subjected to becoming homeless. Many homeless individuals have no place of their own due to poverty levels, trauma or life challenges are other reasons that created their struggle to sustain a place of their own called home. Along with other challenges, homeless people do not have the resources for their security deposit and/or the ability to sustain the funds to pay their monthly rent in order to maintain a home.