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Advocacy and Homelessness

BSHS 441
Joann Wherry
6/6/2013
Advocacy and Homelessness What is advocacy? The classic definition is simply “The act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a cause, idea, or policy; active support. “(Free Dictionary, 2013). To brand this definition more explicit to advocacy inside the Human Services field we need to add just a little more information. A more exact, directed to human services, definition of advocacy could be: to provide assistance to a certain population by supporting or communicating for them to attain the services in which they require. The amount of homeless individuals in America is disturbing. The need for advocacy amongst the homeless populace is in extreme igh demand today. “The recession will force 1.5 million more people into homelessness over the next two years, according to estimates by The National Alliance to End Homelessness.” (PBS, 2013). People find themselves homeless for a multitude of reasons. A lack of affordable housing and the limited scale of housing assistance programs have been the main driving force contributing to the current housing crisis. Homelessness and poverty have always been intricately interconnected. Poor individuals are regularly unable to pay for shelter, food, daycare, health care, and schooling. The main reasons why homelessness continues consist of stagnant or dropping incomes and less secure occupations which offer little to no benefits. Other less underlying factors include domestic violence, mental illness, and drug addiction. “Each day, roughly 700,000 people in the country are homeless. About 120,000 are chronically homeless.” (NY TIMES, 2013). Against this background, the 100,000 Homes Campaign has set an objective of placing 100,000 habitually homeless individuals. It is the human welfare version of NASA’s race to put a man on the moon. The important story with homelessness is that when cities make a combined effort to lessen it, they are successful. Wichita, New York, Norfolk, Kansas and Denver, Va., for instance, have considerably reduced their homeless populace, in most cases by more than 50%. What we can learn from this is that there are many ways to fight homelessness but only a community coming together to fight it will have the best long lasting results. Developing a plan to meet these challenges is very difficult. It requires mass community involvement and a massive amount of funding. Personally I think the government is racing backwards against the issue. The overall cost of preventing homelessness rather than stopping it does not compare. The cost of keeping a family off the streets rather than getting them off the streets is 10 fold. The cost of homelessness can be relatively high. Hospitalization, treatment, imprisonment, police involvement, and shelter costs can add up rapidly, making homelessness unexpectedly costly for taxpayers, cities, and the government. Homelessness results from a compound set of issues that require individuals to make a decision between sustenance, housing, and other basic needs. Only a combined effort within the government and municipals to ensure better jobs that pay a livable wage, suitable support for those who cannot work, inexpensive housing, and reasonable health care can end homelessness
References
Bornstein, D. F., (2013). A Plan to Make Homelessness history. The New York Times,. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/a-plan-to-make-homelessness-history/
Free Dictionary. (2013, Jun 4). The Free Dictionary. Retrieved June 4, 2013, from http://www.thefreedictionary.com/advocacy
National Alliance. (2013, Jun 4). State of Homelessness. Retrieved June 4, 2013, from http://www.endhomelessness.org/library/entry/the-state-of-homelessness-2013
PBS. (2013, Jun 4). The Homeless. Retrieved June 4, 2013, from http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/526/homeless-facts.html

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