...The Streets are not A Home for Youth Carlton Crayton English 147 August 31, 2015 University of Phoenix The Streets are not A Home for Youth The United States of America; the "Land of Milk and Honey," also known throughout the world as a place of prosperity. While this may be true for some, there is a significant percentage of the American population who lives in poverty. There are many who are so impoverished that they do not even have a place to call home. While homelessness has always existed in America, never before has this nation seen such a high percentage of its youth population living on the streets. Even though Young people often become homeless due to family conflict and substance abuse, youth is at a higher risk for homelessness than adults ("Starry Children At Heart Ministries, Inc.", 2015). In order to reduce the number of homeless youth, society needs to address the high rates of substance abuse, mental illness, and sexual trauma that is experienced by today's young adults. Substance abuse of alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs are prevalent amongst homeless youth. Many, young adolescent young people who became or on the verge of becoming homeless, were brought up in households where drug and alcohol were being used on a regular basis by parents or guardians. Domestic violence and some form of abuse within the home was present. Therefore, prompted the youthful pre-adult youth, encountering a horrible and traumatic adolescence. Subsequently;...
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...Running head: Homeless in Seattle Homeless in Seattle Melissa Elliott PAD 500 Dr.MCCue August 17, 2012 Abstract The epidemic of homelessness has taken a great toll on our society as we know it. America has been noted as the land of great opportunity and provision for one who wants to get ahead in life, it is often times referred to as the land of milk and honey. How did America get in such turmoil in housing its own citizens? America is noted to help other countries with all types of aid food, clothing, protection etc. .We must get back to the basics and create a solution to house our homeless population. Homeless is defined as a person or people not having a permanent residence or dwelling place. Mayor Schell’s Zero Homeless strategy was written to help combat the serious issue of homeless citizens in Seattle. Mayor Schell’s declaration was very pure ad heart felt concerning the homeless. He made decree that some may have viewed as an unrealistic goal. His firm decree declared that by Christmas of 1998 there would be no homeless families with children or single women out on the street. This was a great goal for a six month period and definitely not attainable. There are several reasons, taken from the public administration literature, why the strategy is not likely to be appropriate in this case. Principally, as Ring & Perry (1985) concisely...
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...Unwanted: LGBT Teen Homelessness Keli Beall Kaplan University Unwanted: LGBT Teen Homelessness "We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty." - Mother Teresa Jenny closed her eyes and pictured last year’s Christmas. Her family was all gathered around the tree, everyone wearing smiles and speaking with laughter. It was warm and she was excited not only about the holiday season, but also because she had planned to finally tell her parents about Maggie, her girlfriend of five months. She was a bit worried about how her parents would react but they loved her and would want her to be who she was and to be happy. She couldn’t wait to stop hiding, to stop pretending she was something else. She never thought that would be her last Christmas with her family. She never imagined that a year later she would be living on the streets, cold, scared and hungry watching all the happy families go in and out of the stores and shops. Her parents kicked her out when she broke the news about Maggie. For a while she stayed with friends until there were no more offers of a place to lay her head for the night. She tried shelters until she got beat up one night when someone let it slip she was gay. For a bit she was staying at a home for LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) youth, but they ran out of funding and shut down...
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...Homelessness in America seems to happen with alarming frequency. Homelessness affects millions of Americans each year, with approximately one third of the population suffering from severe mental disorders. It is a devastating experience for families. Every year, the United States conduct an enumeration of homeless people around the nation. These reports of homeless people conducted by the National Alliance to End Homelessness are based on the definition set by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), in what is commonly known as a “point-in -time” count. Point-in-time counts are the only measure that captures unsheltered persons experiencing homelessness. Last year's point-in-time count is the most recent national estimate of homelessness in the United States. As of January 2013, the national count of unsheltered people experiencing homelessness decreases by 11.6% between 2012 and 2013. There is a common misconception that homelessness is an issue that only pertains to single men and women, but in reality over 600,000 families a year will experience homelessness. The problems of family homelessness are not solely restricted to urban areas; rural area and suburban communities are increasingly plagued by the problem. The three main reasons for the abundance of dispossessed families within America are the following: 1) the lack of affordable housing, 2) poverty, and 3) mental illness. In today's society, these causes are the main contributors towards...
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...Homeless Youth General Education Capstone October 14, 2013 Homeless Youth Homelessness affects many youth today; 46% runaway because they express their gender identity, and or sexual identity because their family rejects them, 43% are kicked out by parents also known as thrown away. Youth also take more things literally then adults, so they feel misunderstood especially when they are opening up about their sexual lifestyle. Homelessness in youth is worldwide and needs a world wide solution. Just to name a few countries that have issues with youth and homelessness; Russia’s homeless population has decreased some since the 1990’s but according to Anna Rudnicki the totals are still around 3,000 – 10,000 homeless street kids. (2013). In Australia the homeless youth rate is “estimates that 50,000 Australians under the age of 24 years are homeless with numbers increasing” With numbers increasing Australia needs to find a situation that will help lower their numbers and help get these teens off the street, Since health issues can become an issue. Another area with a heavy population of homeless youth is in Canada. Every day in Canada you can find homeless kids. “Canada, on any given day it is estimated that there are 150,000 homeless youths on the streets” (Rogers, 2012). Rogers’s states that this is an estimate since most homeless youth do tend to avoid shelters. With every country and every town we can find a teen that is homeless, while being homeless the can become sick, and...
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...Homeless Youth I was surprised to learn that so many youth in America don’t have a home to go to every day and night. I decided to look up some statistics on homeless youth; I got my information from the National Coalition for the Homeless. Considering the statistics of how many youth are homeless is from 2002, there is about over one million homeless youth in the US. Pregnant and homosexual, bisexual, and transgender teens account for the highest percent of homeless youth. That doesn’t really surprise me because when most parents find out that their daughter is pregnant or a sexual orientation they don’t approve of they’ll get angry or not accept it so ultimately they’ll kick them out. With the economy today a lot of teenagers don’t have jobs, so if their parents kick them out then they don’t really have a choice but to slum in the streets or if possible find a shelter. Although, most teens don’t experience long-term homelessness; they usually find a relative or find a way to make it on their own. The National Coalition of the Homeless says that the three major causes of homelessness are family problems, economic problems, and residential instability. None of this information surprises me because of physical and sexual abuse within families and the economy downfall and homes being foreclosed on. Since most youth can’t afford to sustain themselves on their own they turn to other means to make money. Some of these ways are selling drugs and selling their body. I...
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...Flor Payan Prof. Jane Doe ENG 1102 November 17, 2014 Homelessness: Its Roots and Implications Everybody has been in touch with homelessness in America in one way or another. Either by looking at homeless people on the streets while driving home, or in a more unfortunate way, by dealing with it personally or knowing someone who deals with homelessness. It is clear that homelessness is a multifactorial problem, and its ramifications and consequences go beyond the simple fact of not having a home to call our own. Homelessness seems to affect more some segments of the population and some ethnic backgrounds more than others. With such facts, we can ask: what is the origin of homelessness? How someone becomes homeless? What can we do, as a society, to fight homelessness? And more importantly, why the strategies designed to fight homelessness are not working as effectively as expected? Considering the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are homeless and millions more at risk, as moderate estimates tell, the problem is clearly worse than we would like to think. There are clearly understood circumstances that create homelessness in America. Now “it is generally believed that the increase incidence of homelessness in the US has arisen from broad societal factors”, and economist and sociologists have found that homelessness is directly related to “changes in the institutionalization of the mentally ill, increases in drug addiction and alcohol usage, etc” (Quigley and Raphael)...
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...Fight to End Homelessness? What has to change in the fight to end homelessness? The number of homeless in need is larger than the funds available to make a difference. People wanting to help are not up-to-date about how, where, and when they can help. Where funds should go is complicated for federal assistance determination. If one does get approved for assistance, they may have to wait six months before aid will arrive. One may ask what can they do help the homeless population? They can volunteer with donations and clothing drives, donate food to soup kitchens, and write to their senators with suggestions about the needs of the homeless. The donations may not be a large sum of money, but for someone that has no money it’s a lottery win (Targeted News Service, 2015). The many public and private non- profit agencies to benefit the homeless movement have the mission statement which is: Reduce Homelessness in America. Homelessness in America is being addressed by some of the following coalitions with overwhelming urgency. The National Alliance to end Homelessness in America (NAEH) provides data and research to policymakers in Washington (Targeted News Service, 2015). All established information along with the continuing research between national organizations follows the NAEH lead to end homelessness along with support of the determined mission to end homelessness in America (Targeted News Service, 2015). Agencies Involved with Ending Homelessness in America The following...
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...Disheartening is a word one could use to describe how Tank felt while he slept in the abandoned buildings of Queens, New York. It’s very likely that the walls were laced with intricate spiderwebs and housing various mold spores, but his group, the handful of youth that was crouching there, could not even afford to focus on these simpler unpleasantries when there were much graver issues to attend to. The very floorboards that they walked on were a safety hazard, as they creaked and snapped beneath their feet. One of Tank’s friends was unfortunate enough to break through a board and have his leg slashed open. Petrified at the possibility of people finding their hideout and then being forced into a loathsome shelter, the group closed the wound themselves prior to bringing “him out into the street before [they] called the ambulance.” This was life for Tank now....
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...Child homelessness is on the rise in America. ¬This must be corrected before more children become homeless. In 2013 Alabama ranked #50 for having the most homeless children in the United States, Arizona is number 45 (Sco). Children who are homeless are more likely to be victims of poverty, domestic violence, and affordable housing. Right now in America, NBC reported that in 2014 one in 30 American children are homeless (Martha C. White). Why are so many children homeless this day and age? How would it feel it have a homeless son or daughter? Homeless children are often victims of poverty, domestic violence, or affordable housing. This is why so many of them are homeless. Homeless people have something in common whether you are young or old, its substance abuse (Zeisemer). Youth and teens ages 12-21 often find themselves lost with nowhere to go. Some of these teens often resort to the use of drugs and alcohol (Ringwalt.) Drugs and alcohol for these kids help cope with what they are experiencing. With the use of drugs and alcohol this leads to the children killing themselves because they overdose or become addicted. Drugs and alcohol are a factor to homelessness, because of this child homelessness is on the rise....
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...HOMELESS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA So who exactly are Homeless? According to the Stewart McKinney Act (1994)[1], a person is considered as homeless if he/she is not able to acquire a “fixed”, “regular” and “adequate nighttime residence” and has a primary nighttime residence that is either used as a place to accommodate people on temporary basis, e.g. motels, rehabilitation centers, shelter homes, etc., or a place that is intended to be used as an institution, e.g. schools, hostels, etc., or a place that is not intended to be used as a nighttime residence (temporary or permanent) i.e. places like public parks, bus stops, subways, streets, etc. So this concludes our definition of Homeless. Now we shall take a look at some statistics obtained through reliable national data sources. Speaking broadly, people face homelessness because they cannot afford suitable housing. In fact, homelessness is clearly visible in urban areas of the country, where people lag enough resources to meet their housing requirements and eventually end up homeless. Homelessness can attributed to lack of money, higher living costs, scarcity of economic residence, etc. Moreover, data gathered by the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, through point-in-time count shows that; a) There are 610,042 people facing the problem of homelessness on any given night in America[2] i.e. almost 19 people in 10,000 will be suffering from Homelessness. b) Of these homeless people, 222,197 are...
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...Gardner July 1, 2013 The social issue that “Striving for the Future”, plans to help correct is homelessness in America specifically East Tennessee. The individuals who are homeless are more often than others unable to acquire and maintain regular, safe, secure, and adequate housing. The legal definition of "homeless" varies from country to country, or among different entities or institutions in the same country or region. The term homeless may also include people whose primary night-time residence is in a homeless shelter, a warming center, a domestic violence shelter, cardboard boxes or other ad hoc housing situations. “An estimated 100 million people worldwide were homeless in 2005. In western countries, the large majority of homeless are men (75-80%), with single males particularly overrepresented. In the USA, LGBT people are over-represented among homeless youth, at 40%. Modern homelessness started as a result of economic stresses in society and reductions in the availability of affordable housing. In the United States, in the 1970s, the deinstitutionalization of patients from state psychiatric hospitals was a precipitating factor in urban areas. By the mid-1980s, there was also a dramatic increase in family homelessness. Tied into this were an increasing number of impoverished and runaway children, teenagers, and young adults, which created more street children or street youth. Most countries provide a variety of services to assist homeless people. They often provide food...
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...Homelessness in America Tonight, across America, as many as 3.5 million people will not have a safe place to go to sleep. The homeless will be sleeping out in the cold, on a park bench or in the gutter. The lucky ones may be sleeping in a shelter tonight. These so called shelters are sometimes even more dangerous because they are frequently over-crowded and understaffed. But the real question is, in the land of opportunity, where the typical family has more televisions than family members and an average of two cars, why are there so many citizens on the street, struggling to survive from day to day? How are so many people, fellow human beings, sleeping on sidewalks, begging for spare change, and digging through garbage cans just to find food to eat? While the general impression is that the homeless are primarily alcoholics and drug abusers, more than half the homeless are families with children. The vast majority of these have been thrust into homelessness by a life altering event or series of events that were unexpected and unplanned for. There are many reasons these unfortunate individuals are seen living on the streets of our cities. Homelessness is caused by tragic life occurrences like the loss of loved ones, job loss, domestic violence, and divorce. Other impairments such as depression, untreated mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, and physical disabilities are also responsible for a large portion of the homeless. Many factors push people into living on...
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...Homelessness in America Overview Homelessness in America is a particularly complex problem, vulnerable to changing political realities, demographic shifts, and seismic cultural events such as the ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Researchers and policy advocates have debated nearly every facet of the phenomenon, from the number of homeless to the causal factors to solutions for homelessness (Hodges, 2010). Each year, more than 3 million people experience homelessness, including 1.3 million children. According to national studies, even more Americans are at risk of homelessness. The impact of homelessness on families and children is devastating. Millions of low-income American households pay more than 50 percent of their income on rent when estimates say the figure should be no more than 30 percent (Surveys/Studies/Stats, 2012). There are several situations that may lead to homelessness but some of the more common reasons are: a missed paycheck, a health emergency, or an unpaid bill. These will create a crisis, pushing people out of their homes and in to homelessness. Despite diverse causes, almost all forms of homelessness are tied to poverty (Karger & Stoesz, 2010). Although there are policies to govern the issue of homelessness, there is room for reform and amendments in the legislation. Definition The level of significance we ascribe to homelessness very much depends on how the term is defined. In conducting the first census of the homeless in 1933, sociologist...
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...people to flourish, and ensure that people have equal means to resources and social services that are required for the basic human needs (NASW, 1996). Today, there are many issues facing poverty in America. One that has the most impact on the future of our generation is the youth, and among those who are greatly impacted are of the LGBT – lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. There are many reasons to why young adults are forced to live on the streets. Through this research we can answer some basic questions, including to why so many LGBT youth are becoming homeless. In recent years the LGBT youth have recently sky rocketed in a high proportion which is estimated to be of 600,000 or more homeless youth across the country that is between 20 to 40 percent, which is according to the( National Gay and lesbian Task Force Policy Institute). In New York City 15,000 to 20,000 LGBT youth are among the homeless population which was according to a city count that was conducted in 2008. However it is clear that the LGBT youth experience homelessness and only about 5 percent of them have gone and identified themselves as lesbian, gay, or bisexual, that’s according to the federal centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One reason that the rate is emerging is because these youth are being pushed out of their homes do to their family’s response to their sexual orientation or gender identity. In most cases many face abandonment and rejection from families, and...
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