...health issues in my community, is homelessness. This is a problem for many communities throughout the country, but I see it on a regular basis in the Raleigh, North Carolina communities. There is currently a health crisis visible on the streets of our communities. There are homeless, men, women and children living in unbelievable conditions. Many of these people are suffering from a multitude of health issues. America seems to have completely forgotten about these individuals, failing to stop a think about what elements of their life ultimately landed them homeless. Homelessness is not just a health concern for the individuals involved it also poses health risk to the community as a whole. First, the homeless are without access to running water, this poses several health concerns such as; where is their human waste going without proper facilities? Additional environmental concerns include; encampments, litter, run-off, disease and drug waste....
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...She put her hand on the side of her face, preventing the other passengers on the city bus from hearing or seeing her as she discretely mouthed the words, “Salvation Army” to me. “They don’t know how to treat the homeless” said Mary, 65, criticizing the City of Columbia for the inadequate resources they provide for the homeless population. Mary moved to Columbia a few years ago after being relocated from her home in Melville, Missouri, which she implied was part of an effort to seek out a more suitable place to be homeless. A former member of the group, “Naider’s Raiders”, a 1960s-1970s activist group committed to causes such as consumer advocacy, Mary now spends her time campaigning for better treatment of the homeless population. “The people...
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...Homelessness is something that everyone experiences at some point in their life, often daily, but not everyone truly understands what it means to be homeless. You may experience homelessness by seeing someone on the street and observing their lifestyle or habits, but you don’t see their past that got them there, or their thoughts and feelings about their own situation. The impacts on the personal lives, community, and society as a whole are as broad and diverse as the homeless community itself. There are countless ways to become homeless, and not many ways to escape it without help from an outside source. So who composes the homeless community, what are the causes of homelessness, and what are the ramifications of it on all levels, ranging...
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...Eng. 102 Should Homelessness be Considered a Crime in The Community? Homelessness affects every community. It can happen to anyone no matter what your status, race, gender, or age. It happens for various reasons. For instance, loss of a job, poor physical or mental health, breakdown in family life, domestic violence, drug abuse, etc. When we talk about the homeless, it is important to remember that often times the homeless are being criminalized for being homeless, but is it justifiable to arrest a person for being homeless? Is arresting homeless people really going to benefit the community as well as the homeless? In an article written by Michael Maskin, a senior at Tufts University, titled “No Safe Place: How cities are making it illegal to be homeless,” Maskin explains the case of Jerome Murdough, a 56 year old veteran who was homeless and arrested for seeking a safe place to sleep. Instead of a safe place to sleep, he died in Riker’s Island prison for not having $2,500 to post bail. “Instead of receiving needed assistance, Murdough was treated like a criminal, and ultimately lost his life by trying to protect it” (Maskin 2). This is a saddening story, but it is often very common. Tickets that will not get paid and time in jail will not change the fact that someone is homeless, so it just becomes one more issues added to the many that they deal with. Another testimony Maskin offers in his article is the story of Sandy a homeless...
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...Civic and Community Engagement Project Brief 12.12.2013 Task: Complete a 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...
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...HomelessnessHow to improve Homelessness IntroductionHomelessness is not new to our nation, and it has greatly increased over the past ten years. (Baum, 1-4) For growing numbers of people, work provides little, if any, protection against homelessness. Low national un-employment levels do not mean that all working people are well-off. (Baum, 21-24)What is homelessness? According to the definition stated by Stewart B. McKinney, for purposes of the 1987 McKinney Homeless Assistance Act, “a homeless person (homelessness) is one who lacks a fixed permanent nighttime residence, or whose nighttime residence is a temporary shelter, welfare hotel, or any public or private place not designed as sleeping accommodations for human beings.” (Baum, 8) A rather deceptive definition when one considers the fact that homelessness is not a natural state, but one created and maintained by political agendas.Our government is not doing all that it can to combat our nation’s homelessness.In 1987, the McKinney Homeless Assistance Act was put into law. (Burger, 68-83) However, our government has moved away from the need to address the causes of homelessness. Instead our government has focused on the individual responsibility of those who become homeless, blaming their misfortune as their own fault. (Baum, 5-9) It is this belief that has helped to increase the homelessness of our nation, and it is this belief that will continue to do so if our government does not take a closer and more realistic look at...
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...Running head: HOMELESSNESS Homelessness in America Victoria M. Williams SOC 331, Social Justice & Ethics Cari Lynn Beecham-Bautista, Instructor November 23, 2015 HOMELESSNESS Homelessness in America Homelessness is a multifaceted social problem that is difficult for America to solve. Over the past three decades, there has been an increase in the homeless population in America (“Opening Doors Plan,” 2015). Even when America’s economy is progressing, there is still a high number of citizens who are facing homelessness (“Opening Doors Plan,” 2015). A lack of federal financial assistance, fragmented services and the difficulties in accessing these services have played a major role in hampering the solution to this social problem (“Opening Doors Plan,” 2015). As a result, these factors have necessitated a shift in federal, state and local policies to end homelessness. America has learned that homelessness can no longer be viewed as a short-term crisis where an abundance of emergency shelters can solve the problem. The demand for emergency shelters has always exceeded the supply for them. In order for justice to occur, there is an urgent need for more preventive measures and long-term solutions to end this problem. Homeless individuals and families are a vulnerable population whose rights have to be protected. A just response to America’s homeless problem has to include prohibition of criminalization laws, permanent housing with supportive...
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...Slade 05/04/2016 * APA Citation Norman, T., & Pauly, B. (2013). Including people who experience homelessness: A scoping review of the literature. The International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 33(3), 136-151. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443331311308203 * Problem Homelessness has been associated with isolation, marginalization and social exclusion. It is well understood that those impacted by homelessness often have fewer opportunities than the general population to participate in policy processes, especially in relation to decisions that affect them. Being homeless has many health and social consequences that affect an individual's life chances and opportunities for participation in decision-making over the life course. * Review of Literature Principles of inclusion in policy development have emerged in discourses on disability, the mental health consumer movement, and have begun to inform discussions of drug use. Without the voices and participation of those impacted by homelessness, there is a risk that important understandings essential to the development of effective solutions to homelessness will remain obscured. A search of peer reviewed and grey literature to generate recommendations for the development of guidelines for social inclusion of those impacted by homelessness as part of a community-based response to ending homelessness in effort to answer, how to foster social inclusion in programs and policy between housed and unhoused people...
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...Picture This: A Snapshot of Homelessness David Mello HCA430: Special Populations Instructor: Monica Vargas May 2, 2015 Picture This A Snapshot of Homelessness Imagine if you will, for one moment, a reflection of your daily life. For most, it began like any other day; you awoke from your warm and comfortable bed, showered, chose your outfit for the day, ate breakfast, and then went to work or school. As the day came to end, after earning a solid days wage, you went home to a nice warm dinner ready on the table, a bed with fresh linens awaited your tired and heavy eyes, and for the rest of the evening and into the night you slept on a pillow of dreams. This is in essence the American dream is it not? To have the basic needs that to some may come as a surprise, many Americans do not have. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, “In January 2014, there were 578,424 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States” (National Alliance to End Homelessness, 2015). Many people would be in agreement that the above noted agenda is fairly normal; shelter, food, clothing, education, and family are all blessings and amenities that we take for granted but nonetheless are things that every individual deserves to have. Unfortunately, these are things that many people must suffer without. Scholarly research that spans over the course of two decades has continually and firmly established the emergence and persistence of indigent and homeless...
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...Homelessness and Its effects on the Community A common social concern talked about often in the United States is homelessness. 610,042 young adults, adolescents, and families can be found living without a place to call their home. The amount of homelessness is increasing at an alarming rate; this resulted fundamentally from America’s present-day economy system and the lack of prevention help. Homelessness has an effect on the community economically, socially, and politically; specifically taking an impact on public safety, local governments, and living costs. Anyone can become homeless; nobody chooses to be put in such position. According to Fargo et al., as stated in their article about the variations of homelessness, “as of a single night...
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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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...every day, as passersby ignore their existence on sidewalks, in parks, in subway stations. Based on the U.S. Conference of Mayors report from 2008, 19 of the 25 cities reported an increase in homelessness from 2007. More specifically, 16 cities reported an increase in the number of homeless families. Also, due to the recent foreclosures crisis, homelessness has been on the rise. In the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s 2008 Report, 12 of the 25 cities surveyed reported an increase in homelessness. There were some campaigns have been done after the increasing of the population of homelessness in America. Firstly, The National Center on Family Homelessness launched the Campaign to End Child Homelessness in 2009 to ensure that not one child in America goes to sleep for one night without a home. They believe it unacceptable for any child in the United States to be homeless. The Campaign's legacy will be that all children who are homeless will have stable housing, vital support services, and the same opportunities available to more fortunate children. The campaign plans to better address the needs of homeless children, improve programs and services to meet the unique needs of homeless children. Unfortunately, according to the America’s Youngest Outcasts 2010 State Report Card on Child Homelessness the numbers of homeless children increase by more than 448,000 from 2007 to 2010; 1.6 million (one in 45 children) are homeless in 2010—that is a 38% spike from 2007. Base on my own opinion...
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...Kentucky Paul Jay Keys HSM/210 - Human Services in the United States February 8th, 2014 Ms. Angelique Spruill University of Phoenix One often thinks of homelessness as an urban problem. You think of a person, maybe wearing ragged clothing, walking down a street pushing an encumbered shopping cart, and living under the bridge or in a shelter. However, in Kentucky, our homeless have a very different face as our homeless are often living with friends or family or living in places that do not have running water or electricity. A person is considered homeless if they do not have access to safe, affordable and stable places to live. People become homeless for a variety of reasons such as health problems, family conflicts, limited life choices and the lack of a support system are common causes of homelessness. Loss of employment or the lack of affordable housing, are some of the economic factors that play a role in becoming homeless. Individually, the effects of homelessness are extensive and severe as homelessness means more than just a loss of self-esteem they face intensely higher rates of infectious disease, mental health problems, physical disorders, disabilities and premature death. They also face intensified risks of becoming imprisoned or institutionalized. Homelessness also has an intense impact on the community as well, taking an incredible toll on family stability by impeding the ability to find and maintain jobs, hindering the learning process of children who are...
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...addresses the crisis of homelessness in Seattle. Mayor Schell attempts to tackle the problem and makes a pledge to end the epidemic that he may or may not be able to keep. Specifically, the mayor pledges in June that by Christmas 1998 there will not be homeless women or children living on the streets of his cities (Electronic Hallway). This pledge garnered mass attention as it was run on both local newspapers and televised. Homelessness is robust in nature and scope and takes more than a pledge and good will to eliminate. It may not be within his realm of possibility either fiscally or logistically to accomplish what he pledges. Listening in the audience is the Director of the Community Services Division of the Department of Housing and Human Services, Alan Painter. Painter has over ten years of experience in planning and putting into action a variety of programs targeted at helping the of homeless. He agrees with the mayor’s assessment of the homeless situation, the need to eliminate the problem and applauds the mayor’s fervor. He is however, skeptical that such a feat can be accomplished and wonders how this pledge will mess or clash with the cities standard procedures for handling the homeless. The mayor’s pledge in effect puts Painter on the hot seat, so to speak in that he must devise a strategic plan to essentially make the mayor’s pledge a reality or as close to it as possible. Painter fears the cities current approached to homelessness are not capable of meeting...
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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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