...research paper on Homelessness in Ireland. Write a reflective paper, with maximum 2000 words including references, discussing and reflecting on – The causes of homelessness – The issues that Homeless people face – Solutions to Homelessness – The Simon Society in Ireland Homelessness in Ireland Homelessness is one of our biggest problems in the word and also in Ireland. According to the statistics there are 3808 homeless people living in Ireland. Those include the people who are sleeping on the street, the ones who are staying in refugees or alternative hostels, people who live temporarily in bed and breakfast, or with their family or friends or illegally in squats. Figure 1 1 Figure 2 In the Figure 1 you can see how many homeless people each city or region has and the Figure 2 shows us the statistic categorized in homeless male and female living in a accommodation and the ones who don´t have a stay. But what causes the homelessness? Unfortunately most people think that homelessness is mostly caused by they own fault. A lot of people think after some personal failures the people loose control about their life caused by alcohol or drug abuse and become homeless. Although the personal failures named before also affect homelessness there are more personal reasons that caused homelessness and also most people forget to think about the structural reasons that also affects the homelessness. Some personal or social issues that can cause homelessness are individual influences...
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...Homelessness is an ever growing problem for years in the United States, and the debate on if the government should help is question that has been brought to the table. There has been a sharp increase in the homelessness in 2010 from approximately 407,966 to 640,000 since the fall of the economy (endhomelessness.org 2012). This number only represents just the people that have been reported in shelters. If you look closer the number of homeless in the US is amazing. Homelessness is a complex problem, with many challenges and variables. But for all of its complications, the solution to homelessness to some is surprisingly as simple placing them in homeless shelter. For many city officials, community leaders, and even direct service...
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...There’s no place like home | | Homelessness started as far as the 1930’s when the stock market crashed causing “The Great Depression”. During this time people lost jobs and their homes. People were devastated at the fact that that they were forced to sell their belongings. Later on in the years homelessness began to increase after the war because the vets couldn’t find jobs and were forced to live on the street because no one would hire them. The reason that there are so many people homeless is because the economy. People can’t find jobs so they have to sell their home and downgrade to a smaller home or apartment. Often there are times when families are broken up because the husband can’t provide for his family and they end up on the streets. The root cause of being homeless can be explained by economics, it’s said that people who become homeless are going through a financial issue and are unable to obtain or maintain their homes. Research shows that 83% of the homeless population experience episodic, transitional, or temporary periods of homelessness. The challenges that people in poverty ridden areas in trying to keep their get a home is the level of the housing cost burden. When housing is 30% or less of monthly income then it is considered to be affordable. Data collected from the US Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey shows that 75% of the households at or below the poverty line are severely housing cost burdened. When your housing accounts for 50% or...
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...Homelessness Do you ever take what you have for granted? Have you ever stopped to think about what you would do without the necessities you have? Most of us do not realize that we are lucky to be able to go home at night and sleep in a bed. The ugly truth is that there are hundreds of thousands of people in the world that are unable to go to a home at night and sleep in a nice warm bed. What's even worse is that a lot of these people are children, and have never known what it was like to sleep in a bed without any fault of their own. Our neighbourhoods are filled with homeless children and families that deserve the simple things that we may take for granted every day. As we grow older we concern ourselves about the youth that will soon take care of what we accomplished and built to improve our lives. 33,000 Canadians are homeless on the street, 11,000 of which are youth (" Report on youth homelessness", 2012).That is a large chunk of our youth not able to experience or have the same choices as we might have had in our lives. Every person is able to improve or make a change to better this world and environment, and we especially need our youth to help us grow and make a difference in the world. We need to help get our youth off the streets and empower them that they can make a difference, and they do matter. People become homeless for many reasons; however, the most common reason is the inability to pay rent. ("Homelessness in Canada", 2012) Many people may think that people...
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...the society Affected Population The meaning of being homeless in the United States helps define who is able to receive shelter and assistance from health and social service providers. In order to live a normal life requires having a home to live in. Yet people with no home and unable to afford anything can be found in all countries. The main reason is the individual cannot get the housing loans or welfare accessible to others. The causes of homelessness can be caused by family altercations or tragedy (or prison), or even a natural disaster. The larger proportions of homeless parents who are separated from their children in the US and the larger number of families in the homeless population are both likely because of the US social policy. Higher levels of inequality and lower levels of social benefits are associated with higher rates of homelessness. The Stewart McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of 1987 describes a homeless person as any place not meant for regular sleeping accommodation by humans. In 2005, an estimated 744,313 men, women, and children were homeless in the United States (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2007). Adults that are homeless are poor and have high rates and they don’t qualify for health care. There are also a large number of former veterans who become homeless. It is estimated that between 23 percent and 40 percent of homeless adults are veterans (National Alliance to End Homelessness). Poverty is related with higher risk...
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...Homeless in Prince William County Introduction and background: Homelessness is one of our nation’s most misunderstood and vexing social problems. Many individuals of all races struggle with the devastating effects of homeless including families with children, single adults, teenagers and the elderly. This is an issue that can be defined as living in unsuitable, unsafe and overcrowded environment. “On a single night in January 2013, there were 610,042 people experiencing homelessness in the United States, including 394,698 people who were homeless in sheltered locations and 215,344 people who were living in unsheltered locations” (Henry & Cortes, 2013). This shows homelessness in American is a crisis, many more individuals become homeless everyday. They struggle moving from place to place, night after night, in constant state of fear and survival. People become homeless for a variety of reasons. Homelessness is primarily an economic problem, and is also affected by a number of political and social factors. Economic factors include the lack of affordable housing, “housing costs have risen steadily across the country, and they have skyrocketed in many areas. Further, the inability to afford housing is concentrated among households with incomes below the poverty level, whose members account for the vast majority of people entering homelessness” (Burt, 2001). The growing gap between wage earnings and the cost of housing leaves millions of families and individuals unable...
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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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...of Los Angeles: Homelessness Marqueta Oliver BSBO1ELEG6 10/29/2014 Paul Korzeniowski The True Face of Los Angeles: Homelessness Even though some people believe that tourism is a more important focus in Los Angeles than poverty, Homelessness is a crisis in Los Angeles because it affects everyone and reducing homelessness will improve the economy. Homelessness in our nation affects our, communities, economics and families at large. Being a native Angelino, I grew up not realizing that homelessness is an epidemic. I did not understand why there were so many homeless people, nor did I think of seeing panhandlers asking for money and food as a crisis, but I viewed it as “normal”. I always knew local transients by name and would try to help with spare change or a meal when I could. I had no idea of the staggering statistics of homelessness in my community; I didn’t understand the effects of homelessness on our economy and that the alarming rate of poverty level in my metropolitan city, affects us all. By focusing more attention, resources and time to housing our poverty-stricken communities in the long run it would cost less and would also create a more humane society. In the beautiful city of Los Angeles, tourists from all over world fill the cities top attraction sites daily. What most tourist may not know is that every morning before dawn, Los Angeles has a long history of using police to control public spaces by limiting the appearance of homelessness in the city. While...
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...Homeless and Incarceration HOMELESS AND INCARCERATION Homelessness is the problem that influences the life of the whole society. It is critical for the United States and as almost half a million of citizens do not have their own houses. They do not have the opportunities that the representatives of the general public have and cannot afford even some basic needs. Homeless individuals have to break the law and commit crimes, such as stealing food, even though they do not intend to do so, which leads to mass incarceration. This influences their behavior and increases the chances of becoming drug or alcohol addicts, which makes homeless individuals even more likely to become incarcerated. People who are imprisoned, often have no or underpaid job that does not provide these people with money enough to have a decent residence, which makes them a vulnerable population (Johnson 2015). It is important to consider what makes homeless people commit crimes that result in imprisonment. The information from various articles received during the literature review, I will reveal the connection between homelessness and incarceration, emphasizing the history that lead to their occurrence as well as the main causes of both problems. I will point out and explain the correlations between homelessness and crime rates, as well as its connections to the mental disorders, substance abuse, and chronic health condition in the context of how homeless lifestyle can be related to the incarceration...
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...Homelessness: America’s Invisible Numbers As each decade passes there comes to light a new or growing national problem that faces our country. Our nation’s history is blanketed with social problems the American people have encountered, such as civil rights, recessions, political struggles, warfare, and increasing unemployment. Each of these issues has received media attention for the problems, complications, and obstacles they provide for the population. Each of these issues in their own right is important and needs to be addressed because it affects every person in the country. However, there is another problem that poses a challenge to the American people that does not receive the attention it so desperately needs. The issue is American homelessness, a segment of the population that continues to grow with each passing year. Homelessness is caused by a number of factors that differ for each person. The most significant causes of homelessness are the lack of affordable housing coupled with a national increase in poverty, mental illness and addiction disorders. According to the McKinney-Vento Act of 1987, a homeless person is defined as any person who lacks housing. This includes individuals whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility that provides temporary accommodations or an individual who is a resident in transitional housing. This means an individual who lacks fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence, and an individual...
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...208 The Truth about Homelessness There is a man standing on the side of the road. He holds a sign that reads; lost job, have family, anything will help. His eyes stare at the ground as he shamefully holds the piece of cardboard. His family stands behind him with nothing but fear in their eyes. We see people like this almost every day, either on our commute to work or school, to the local grocery store, or even just on our way home. So many times we convince ourselves that somebody else will help them. We make our selves believe that the next person to drive by them will help them out; that we don’t have the time, but somebody else will. This is the problem. Why is Homelessness an issue? Despite Washington's recovering economy, homelessness is on the rise. An estimated 25,000 residents are without shelter on any given night. There are many circumstances that may cause one to be homeless. Living a homeless lifestyle does not occur to one “type” of person but more so, I believe, is the outcome to a series of decisions and outcomes. Some of the outcomes that may have led these individuals to their current situation could be: Loss of income, inflation, misdiagnosed mentally ill patients, practicing poor health, as well as the uneducated and untreated drug and alcohol dependent individuals. Homelessness destroys families and communities, undermines morale, contributes to crime, creates drag on the economy, and also prevents people who used to live normal lives from doing normal...
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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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...Homelessness is a huge social problem that is facing America as a nation today. According to Wikipedia 'Homelessness describes the condition of people without a regular dwelling' (Wikipedia.(2013). Homelessness. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessnes). Homelessness has become a huge problem that looks us in the face daily and is putting a large number of children, teenagers,women and our elderly at risk daily. It impacts our society negatively. According to National Alliance to end Homelessness, '82 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States.Of that number, 239,403 are people in families, and 394,379 are individuals. Slightly fewer than 16 percent of the homeless population are considered "chronically homeless,"and About 13 percent of homeless adults- 62,619 - are veterans. '(National alliance to End Homelessness.(2013). Snapshot of homelessness. Retrieved from http://www.endhomelessness.org/pages/snapshot_of_homelessness)'. Some of the causes of homelessness and the extent homelessness affects our society today are as follows- Domestic violence is one of the leading causes of homelessness in the U.S. Statisctics show that in 2008 28% of families where homeless in the united states due to domestic violence.(National Homeless Organization.(2013). Domestic Violence and Homelessness . Retrived from www.nationalhomeless.org/factsheets/domestic). Over the years our society has seen a surge in violence largely due to media...
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...Homelessness is a major social issue facing our society today. Homelessness among United States Veterans in particular is at epidemic levels for those returning to civilian life. Given the Iraq and Afghanistan tours and number of soldiers returning from multiple tours in “hell”, it is little wonder the number of homeless vets has more than doubled in the past two years. (Zoroya, 2014) Serious measures need to be taken to save our “fallen soldiers” from the depressing life on the streets of America. But in order to do this we must first understand the life of homeless vets to determine why conventional attempts at solving this problem just don’t work. Our society needs to take ownership in working with State and Federal Government to implement successful solutions which produce positive results in eliminating homelessness among our veterans. The number of Afghanistan and Iraq veterans who are homeless or risk losing the roof over their heads is increasing as more of these soldiers return home from active duty. At the end of September, 2014, 531 of these vets were living on the streets of Connceticut. (Zoroya, 2014) These numbers are actually much higher because it only represents the number staying in shelters or those receiving federal temporary housing vouchers to pay rent as noted in Department of Veterans’ Affairs reports. (Zoroya, 2014). There were more than 62,600 homeless veterans in the United States according to data from January 2014 report released by...
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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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