...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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...Wildeman (2014) explored the relationship between paternal and maternal incarceration and the prevalence of child homelessness. He found that paternal incarceration, not maternal incarceration, leads to child homelessness. The reason for this is because children whose mother are incarcerated are more likely to be put into foster care system, thus they are less likely to be homeless. On the other hand, paternal incarceration leads to a decline in governmental support, an increase in maternal stress and mental health issues, and an increase in financial instability in the family. Families lose one source of income when fathers are incarcerated, and African American men often have difficulties finding jobs after being released, thus increase the...
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...Allegheny County, homelessness has been an ongoing issue in need of attention. Each year the Continuum of Care (CoC) program assists in providing point-in-time (PIT) data to the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regarding the demographics of the homeless population throughout the country. People become homeless for a number of reasons. Primarily homelessness is due to a lack of funds. Homelessness can also be attributed to severe mental illness and chronic substance abuse. In the United States, 20-25% of the population is affected by some form of severe mental illness. People affected with mental illness are more likely to become homeless than the general population. Mental Illness can disrupt a person’s ability to carry out essential daily tasks of living, such as self care and household management. Mental illness can inhibit...
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...Introduction Homelessness is a crisis faced across the globe. Homelessness can be simply defined as a person living without a home, forcing them to reside on the streets. Some homeless people exit the situation quickly, but many more fall into homelessness long term. Much of this trend is due to many social-economical factors in the society. Drugs, finances and abuse are some of the root causes to this problem. The lack of jobs, rise in living costs, addictions to drugs, and domestic disputes are what drive people to become homeless. According to a report released by the US census Bureau, (2014), the rise in homelessness is significant, hitting 3.5 million people who experience the situation in every year. Out of the 3.5 people experiencing homelessness, 35% of them are families that include children. The families in the United States are the fastest growing segment of homeless individuals. The military veterans who are homeless constitute 23% of the total people who are homeless in the United States. Of the 3.5 million homeless people, 25% are minors who are aged below 18 years (U.S. Census Bureau 2014). The minors become homeless when their families or the caretakers become homeless. Some of the homeless children lack paternal families and may have run away from the orphanage and children homes to make lives on their own. The statistics showed that 30% of the homeless people had experienced domestic violence and 25% suffered from mental illnesses. In the urban settings...
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...training in the culture-centered approach to gain, “accurate assessment, meaningful understanding, and appropriate intervention” (p. 11). A variety of factors can affect the understanding of a culturally diverse individual, such as homelessness, sexual harassment, and racism. Through an understanding of those three sociopolitical factors, psychologists and therapists can see the impact of these factors on psychological development, behavior, and distress. As a result, practices may be put in place to help minimize potentially harmful consequences. Homelessness Approximately two and a half million people are homeless and 30-50% of this group consists of families with children (Pedersen & Locke, 1999). According to Pederson and Locke (1999), homeless is defined if an individual meets one of the following criteria: • Inability to secure regular and stable housing • Primary residence is a public or private shelter • Occupying a place not designated for housing (p. 90). The homeless population accounts for 50% African American, 35% White, 12% Hispanic, 2% Native American, and 1% Asian (Almanac of Policy Issues, 2000). Reasons for homelessness can include poverty, unemployment, and the lack of job skills (Pederson & Locke, 1999). Homelessness creates the inability to develop a secure environment in which an individual may return to at the end of each day. Individuals...
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...THE HOMELESNESS 1 The homelessness Mario Berrios Concepcion Columbia College This research was prepared for HUMS 365 American Social Policy Instructor Jessica Whitmore 24 july 2014 THE HOMELESSNESS 2 The homelessness Homelessness is a major problem facing many US cities today. According to Foundations of Social Policy in the United States a house is a commodity, developed and traded for profit. A house can provide shelter and protection. A home provides continuity and a social context for individuals and families, and those become homeless lose more than a shelter (Smith Barusch 165). With its many causes, homelessness is an extremely diverse problem that has proven difficult to remedy. Though some homeless people find themselves in unfortunate situations, others are homeless by choice. Those who choose homelessness do so either indirectly, by making decisions that result in negative consequences, or directly, by opting to be free of life’s responsibilities. This belief is not commonly found in print since society most often feels compassion and pity toward the homeless. Still, assistance is offered on a federal level, as well as on local levels. Although there are many charitable organizations, along with the government, that offer assistance to the homeless nationwide. Homelessness remains a prevalent problem mainly due to the fact that some of the homeless choose that lifestyle. The Stewart B. McKinney Act, which provided assistance...
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...Amanda Germain Mrs. Leeker ENG111 2/25/14 Poverty and Homelessness: An Annotated Bibliography. “Black Parents Demand ‘World-Class’ Education, Too.” Washington Informer. 20. Mar 2013. ProQuest. Web. 15 Feb. 2014. In the article ‘World-Class Education’, it said that education need to be affordable for the community of African American. Some African American children are dropout which had damaged the community. Without education, the middle class people would not be able to sustain their family which can lead to society loss. Parents need to back their children education and to avoid them from dropping out of school. The source wants the middle-class to educate themselves so that they could have greater life for themselves and their family. It pressure parents and children to get educated. I would use this article for my research paper because it explain how lack of education lead to poverty and homelessness. It also discussed the importance of education in the African American community and how it can prevent poverty and homelessness. This source is credible because it demanded quality education for the middle class and African American. The author had written many articles about education in the middle-class communities. Many of these articles could be find in the education database at the Nova library. Doak J. Melissa. Ed. “Money, Income, and Poverty Status.’ Minorities: Race and Ethnicity in America. 2012. Detroit: Gale, 2013. Information...
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... Time:10:00 Homelessness What are your thoughts about the title? I think there should not be any homelessness in America because America is one of the richest countries in the world. What comes to your mine about the title? What comes to my mine when I think about homelessness is people living in vaccion building's , under briges and people at the freeways with sings asking for food or money. Do you agree or disagree? I disagree about homelessness because there is a lot of vaccion houses in the neighborhood that we could place homeless people in or turn empty building into shelters for homeless people. What did you learn about your field research? I learned that there are people outside in the cold or hot with no where to live and notting to eat or drink. They are living under places in have to beg other people for food or money. They also have no clean clothe's to wherethey are digging in garbage looking for bottles and cans to take to the store. Population: 6 Education: Diploma G.E.D College 2 1 1 Age: 21-74 Ethnicity: African American Response from the people that where interview I think city leaders can do something about homeless. I think vaccion schools should be turned into shelerts for homeless people. There's no reason for there to be homelessness because there taking people out of there homes and letting them go bad...
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...Running head: Sociology AIU-Online Sandra Fitzhugh Homelessness Abstract Homelessness today is increasing at a large rate and is an issue for today’s society. Although there are a lot of people in this situation such as our middle class who was once in place of good standing now face homelessness in alarming numbers across the country. Homelessness can affect your community economically, socially and politically while causing concerns in the area of public safety and cost of living as a whole. This paper takes a look at the reasons there is homelessness in our society today and the things we together can do to get this situation in control to help those who need it most. When we look at homeless people we as a society always want to make an assumption of people who are homeless not knowing the underlying reason that cause people to be in this situation in the first place such as economic strife of losing their job after working for a company for 20 years or more and being replaced with someone who is younger. Homelessness means a person having no shelter of their own or a name on a lease. Even though there are studies that say that homelessness is because of drug abuse, depression and other disorders and that is a choice there are several other factors that contribute to people being homeless like the wars, unemployment, foreclosures and the break up of families all play an important part as to why people find themselves on the streets. There are a lot...
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...What is the American way of life? This question can be answered in a pleather of ways from many different backgrounds of people. In my opinion, the American way of life is best symbolized by two key dates in American history. July 4, 1776 is one of the greatest days in the history of our great nation. America on this day set herself apart from the tyranny and colonial control of Europe and started a nation of core human values that would forever change the world. The founding fathers would then go on to create the constitution on September 17, 1787 which gave all Americans the freedoms and values which we still live by today. These values like freedom of speech, freedom of religion, equality, liberty, are all things that we enjoy as Americans...
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...The effects of transatlantic travel inevitably lead to a sense of homelessness. In Crèvecœur’s Letters from an American Farmer, and Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, the writing revolves around characters who essentially do not have homes, both dealing with transatlantic settings. Equiano is consistently stripped of his home, starting in Africa, and is perpetually forced to adapt in new environments. Crèvecœur’s narrative depicts a new American settler, James, who comes from England, and is in the liminal state of homelessness, from settling into his new land to eventually fleeing his estate. The piece that displays homelessness a lot more overtly is The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, where Equiano immediately gets taken from his home, igniting his life of disarray. In order to convey this theme of homelessness, it is important to outline the various instances leading up to it: “...two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood” (The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, p.47). It is in this moment that Equiano will henceforth struggle to maintain some semblance...
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...when an individual exhibits the strength to endure, persevere and withstand life’s difficult challenges and pave the way for other individuals. Sydney Poitier is a Bahamian American male who has paved the way for many individuals though his courage. He has demonstrated courage in many different ways. Mr. Poitier was born in an era that was very difficult for people with dark complexions. A native of the Bahamas, Mr. Poitier came to the U.S at the age of 15 were he first encountered racism. He lived in Miami in poverty until the age of 18. At the age of 18 he moved to New York to pursue a career in acting after servicing a year in the army. In New York, Mr. Poitier was met with a life of more poverty and homelessness. Mr. Poitier faced many challenge on his way to the top. Some of the challenge he face were racism, rejection for being different, poverty and homelessness. The financial, living and racial overtone issues Mr. Poitier faced didn’t stop him from his pursue of happiness. On the first audience at the African American Theatre, Mr. Poitier was rejected because of his heavy accent but he didn’t let this shortcoming blind him from his true talent and abilities. He dedicated six month after the first audience to focus on controlling his Bahamian accent. On the second audience at the African American Theatre, he was accepted. He was spotted in a rehearsal and was given his first big part in a Broadway production of "Lysistrata," for which he got excellent reviews. Mr. Poitier’s...
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...disease, schizophrenia and related psychoses, malnutrition, and trauma. Many of these veterans have lost their families, homes or even both as a result of the inability to adapt to civilian life. America's homeless veterans have served in all wars including some of our most recent like Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn. The Veterans Administration (VA) currently provides specialized homelessness programs to almost 150,000 homeless veterans. “Since 1987, VA's programs for homeless veterans have emphasized collaboration with such community service providers to help expand services to more veterans in crisis." ("National Coalition for Homeless Veterans", n.d.). Epidemiology Paper Roles This paper will explain the role epidemiology plays in the surveillance of mental illness and substance abuse among America’s Homeless Veteran population. It will also discuss the definition and description of epidemiology, epidemiological methods, the epidemiological triangle and levels of prevention that is related to homelessness, mental illness, and substance abuse associated with our veterans. What is Epidemiology? To better comprehend the role epidemiology...
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...Vietnam War. As a direct result of Post Traumatic Syndrome and other mental/medical disabilities many in this group may not have a permanent home to call their own. To define homelessness according to the site for National Health Care for the Homeless Council (retrieved 2014), one of the official definitions for the state of being homeless or homelessness is presented as follows: A homeless individual is defined in section 330(h) (4)(A) as “an individual who lacks housing (without regard to whether the individual is a member of a family), including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility (e.g., shelters) that provides temporary living accommodations, and an individual who is a resident in transitional housing.” A homeless person is an individual without permanent housing who may live on the streets; stay in a shelter, mission, single room occupancy facilities, abandoned building or vehicle; or in any other unstable or non-permanent situation. [Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C., 254b)](National 2014) This is one of the definitions that tries to explain this large sociological perspective based on trends or patterns and the fact that this social situation requires such a broad explanation to attempt to cover all aspects of homelessness. This explanation does show how widespread and complicated the state of being homeless is and how socially there is not one simple...
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...Destinie Parker Dear commissioner, I am writing this letter to inform on many issues regarding Homelessness in America. This issue has gone un-solved in many places in the United States. It is a complex social issue with many variables. Homelessness is when an individual does not have a stable or reliable place to live. Many homeless people can’t provide themselves or family with a decent meal and clothing. People are homeless for several different reasons such as, eviction, domestic violence, and some situations pertaining to not having a place to live. Many natural disasters ruin homes and places of employment, which is another cause of homelessness and unemployment in America. Minorities make up a huge percentage of homelessness. Minorities are a huge percentage of homelessness. According to National Coalition for The Homeless fifty one percent of homeless people were Latinos and African Americans. Many reasons why minorities are homeless is because the lack of education and problems within their families and homes. Domestic violence shelters are available for those we have gotten into a physical altercation with their partner and feel threaten. These individuals are usually placed in shelters outside of their borough in order to protect them. Government aid for the homeless varies from state to state. Some states don’t have a good system, which does not help those who are in need of housing. Many homeless people suffer from heat strokes and/or hypothermia because they...
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