Powerlessness is when people have no control over the events in their lives. This relates to poverty because most individuals suffering from poverty are powerless over their situation. These individuals feel alienated from other groups in society. In 2011, the poverty statistic was that 43 million people were living below the poverty level. The Census Bureau comparing pre-tax cash income against a threshold that is set at three times the cost of a minimum food diet in 1963. Off course this data is updated changed for the different sizes of families. There are several challenges with how the United States looks at poverty, first it does not include value of family assets like cars. Also many people who are considered poor do not actually think they are, this also becomes a problem when looking at people who are not ranked as poor but in actuality are. This comes into play because poverty is only looked as absolute were things like cars, the internet or daycare are not included. In a modern society like the United States all of these extra things are …show more content…
This statistic is taken by a point and count were individuals go around towns and cities and count homeless individuals. Both counts have shown that there is an increase in families suffering from poverty. The population that individuals see on the streets are more likely to be chronically homeless. These chronically homeless are the harder to house because they have gotten used to living on the streets and do not want to leave. They suffer from alcohol and drug additions and about one-third suffer from mental illness. Also an interesting fact is that people can develop mental illness because of the lack of socialization and proper conditions. Homeless individuals suffer the most from powerless, they have very little control over things that happen in their life and can feel down on their life and
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.
The story of Eric Blair, also known as George Orwell, shows many aspects of poverty. Eric goes about everyday life that is completely and utterly different from every aspect of the average Americans life. He tells of various characters that are all attempting to escape the possessive hands of poverty. Each character has their own way of dealing with poverty. The problem is that none of them seem to escape. The stem of the problem can be found in many aspects of the book. The attitudes of the homeless, the operation of such homeless shelters as “The Spike”, along with the practices of the pawnshop and the actions of the coworkers all contribute greatly in oppressing the poor.
In the United States, homelessness has remained a constant presence in all major cities. For example, in New York City, it is comprised of alcoholics, drug addicts, and other people (“American History”). It has largely moved into hidden places such as unused subway tunnels or under bridges. Whether or not we experience it ourselves, homelessness impacts all of us. Homelessness describes all normal life crisis. There is a difference between people who experience these challenges and become homeless and people who face them and do not use the support systems that they have in place.
Homelessness is primarily a poverty issue. The persistence of poverty in the United States reflects more than just an aggregation of individual failings. Structural factors, such as the way we understand and define poverty, the inherent features of our economic system that produce income inequality, social inequities and our policy responses to these problems shape current trends. Economic changes have had the strongest association with trends in overall rates, regardless of how poverty is measured. Poverty rate is high amongst minority groups, children and female-headed households (Iceland, 2003). According to professor Iceland’s research, rates of extreme poverty are higher among children and African-Americans and lower for whites, Asians and the elderly. Among families with children, married couples were less likely to be poor (6.9 %) than single parent male (17.5%) and single parent female (35.3%).
When examining the issues with homelessness and in particular youth homelessness one may use Empowerment Theory as well as Political Economy Theory to seek answers to definitive questions. Questions such as are homeless youth empowered? Do they have access to wealth? What about their access to information or their reputation in society? They are not in any decision making positions, they lack a high status, and policies that are created which can affect them rarely take their input into account as they are also unable to vote. They are often on their own with few connections that can help to change their situation. Both a city and a larger state system are struggling to identify with this population and in turn often do not provide the appropriate level of assistance. By social empowerment and understanding the dynamics of political economy theory one can help guide the city and state levels to address the issue of youth homelessness.
After watching the video “Sociological Perspective Project: Homelessness,” and read the article “Community Level Characteristics Associated with Variation in Rates of Homelessness among Families and Single Adults I started to think about this more and started to read more on the topic and have I concluded , America could support its citizens better than it currently does by eliminating the progressive tax system, in which as wealth increases so does their income tax and implement tax incentives to encourage job creation. Loop holes should be eliminated in such systems as taxes, as well as welfare in order to prevent people from playing the system. The system should not be set up in such a way that filing for unemployment can be and often times is more profitable that holding a minimum wage job, which defeats the entire purpose of the welfare system. By adding these tax incentives to big business, it would encourage them to create new jobs, decreasing the number of people on welfare. While welfare should not be entirely disbanded, it should be made more restrictive and it, along...
People often tend to think that others are in the awful situations that they are in due to
Homelessness can happen to anyone unexpectedly. Many poor people are at the risk of homelessness. The cost of living and trying to find affordable housing can be very difficult. Many who are homeless are in poverty, have a mental illness, or addictions. Homelessness happens from personal, as well as structural factors. Many aren’t able to make enough for rent, as well as, utilities, food, and other expenses each month. More than 6 million Americans pay more than half of their income towards rent (Reamer, 1989). The trend is once someone becomes homeless, it is likely they will be homeless repeatedly. To end homelessness, affordable housing will have to be created because it is peoples largest single expenditure (Anderson, 2013).
That is just the number of people living in poverty, but how do they count the homeless when you have to have a home to participate in the Census? When the Census is taken, the distributors often go to homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and disaster emergency shelters and evaluate the number of people there for a maximum of 3 days. This is undercoverage by the use of a convenience sample, it does not allow for a better representation of the homeless. Since homeless shelters only let people stay for an allotted amount of time this would not give the Census Bureau accurate information to the actual number of homeless in America that are not represented under the poverty
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).
This paper will explain approaches to resolve the social issue of homelessness in the state of Delaware. It will also explain a few reasons why homelessness should be addressed the correct way to potentially end it. I will describe the correlations of homelessness and health, the crimes involving and against the homeless, and lastly the families subjected to homelessness. A few solutions will be recommended in this paper also to optimistically achieve the goal of assisting the homeless and improving the assistance already given.
This disadvantage is based on a reduced access to goods, services and accommodations which all contribute to increased rates of poor health. Furthermore, those who are homeless have limited opportunities to protect their well-being. Authors Johnstone, Jetten, Dingle, Parsell, and Walter (2015) claim, as being homelessness is often viewed as to some extent controllable due to reasons such as unemployment, drug addiction or mental illness, those individuals are perceived as responsible for their lack of adequate housing and therefore not worthy of assistance or as a matter of fact not fully human. The homeless, as a group, are seen as incompetent and “the lowest of the low” which elicits the disgust and contempt as well as a prejudice that can make people associate the homeless as subhuman. Noted by author Fischer (1992), data indicates that crimes perpetrated on homeless victims including offenses against property and against the person between seven and forty times more often than the general population. Also, one fifth of homeless adults surveyed in New York had been raped and one of every thirteen shelter users in St. Louis reported sexual
Although the amount of homeless people has declined slightly in recent years, in 2012, there were approximately 633, 782 homeless people in the United States (Toppo, 2013). The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development assert that out of this population, about 38% are considered “unsheltered” or living on the streets, in parks, encampments, or other places not intended for habitation (U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, ...
The Homeless in America I never imagined that I would be homeless. " Although I have read this statement over and over again, the facts behind it remain astonishing. The facts are that there are millions of homeless people in America today. Many of these people had no choice but to become homeless. Economic problems such as being laid off work, or the rise in the cost of housing, have led people to live on the streets.
The sociological imagination leads Ralph to homelessness in many ways. Sociological Imagination is how a person perceives the world, the political and social politics, the economics, or the geography. Those factors are going to partake in his journey of how he became homeless and what Ralph’s life is like now.