...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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...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 the causes behind homelessness...
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...Homelessness Georgia Davis Eng/147 June 29, 205 Janet Levy Homelessness “Homelessness is a worldwide problem that affects millions. You will find them sleeping on sidewalks, under bridges, on park benches, in cars and in any little cubby hole they can find. You will see women, men, young kids and families” (G. Davis, personal communication, June 29, 2015). ("The Portland Rescue Mission" ( 2015 ). Retrieved from http://www.portlandrescuemission.org/learn-more/myths-about-homelessness According to ‘the Portland Rescue Mission’ (2015), “The methodology for finding and counting the homeless is imperfect; we simply do not find everyone”. “Why are they all out there? What is Homelessness and what causes it? Homelessness is a very complicated issue that has no social or economic boundary. Mental illness, substance abuse, domestic violence and economic times affect all ages of the Homeless” (G. Davis, personal communication, June 29, 2015). 1. Homelessness and Mental Health Mental Illness seems to be one of the leading causes of homelessness. “During my involvement with the homeless, I knew of a women name Frankie. Frankie was a school teacher, had a husband and two children. One night their home burned down with Frankie’s husband and children being lost in the fire. Frankie lost all rational thinking, not understanding why she lived. Frankie had a complete mental breakdown and ended up on the streets of Dallas homeless. This is a case of mental illness being the...
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...Homelessness: Understanding Why Abstract In January of 2014, 578,424 people were going through homelessness, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. The three main reasons for the large measure of homeless families and people in America and other countries as well are affordable housing, low wages, and mental illnesses. Other reasons also include addictions, abuse, health care, and/or natural occurrences are contributors towards the distressing circumstances of homelessness, which often leads to divorce, health concerns, and educational obstacles. This paper introduces where homeless began and where it needs to end. Homelessness: Understanding Why T.S, Elliot stated “Home is where we start from”. David Belgum, a volunteer Chaplin with the Salvation Army Corp, asked these simple questions, “Is the length of residence in one place a criterion? How substantial does it have to be to be classified as a home? Who should judge whether or not the category of homelessness is to be applied in a given situation—the resident or residents, or someone from the "establishment"?” (Belgum). For many people this is true, but for many it’s not, but whose call is it to make? Many studies are inadequate when it comes to know accurately knowing how many people are in shelters or on the streets. The information found through these studies can be helpful when it comes to knowing roughly the amount of people that use the places like shelters and soup kitchens, but it could...
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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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...YOUTH HOMELESSNESS IN CALIFORNIA Name: Class: Date: Executive summary The United States will endure being an advanced country if the numbers of people holding cardboard on the street do not lessen. 1 out of 7 people in U.S suffer from hunger and are forced to sleep in parks, under bridges, in shelters or cars. Every year, the homeless population grows in the United States. Persons become homeless for many reasons. Because they are destitute, they have been struggling in every way that human likely can have. To get back on their feet, they need help in every way. The homeless population is increasing drastically in society. People who are more fortunate than others should put social status aside and take an action to help homeless people to get back on their feet. Homelessness is a state where an individual or a family does not have a home to live. Along with that, the person is deprived of the legal, and the social dimensions are making him emotionally weak and in the state of isolation. Since the year 1980s, there had been a great shock to the Americans due to the rising homelessness. It led to a burst in the studies and the increasing stories related to the Stewart B. McKinney Homeless Assistance Act of July 1987. In this act, there was an interference allowed off the federal government into this policy of homelessness, which had created many issues. For many years after that, this issue of homelessness remained on the top of the line in the political issues face...
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...lack of competitive pay poses strain on citizens who face an increase in the cost of living. Cost of living increases make it harder for citizens to afford the cost of rent, mortgage, utilities and other basic needs. Without a means to afford all the essentials in life, many Asheville citizens find it too difficult to get by and may end up homeless. In another interview in the Mountain Xpress published this past August, Heather Dilashaw, the program director for the Homeless Initiative Coalition in Asheville stated, “It does seem to be tied to continued depressed economic opportunity, with rents in the Asheville area [continuing] to be above fair-market value [and] difficult to attain. “Ten years ago, a younger adult who didn't have other family support or resources could get a job, even if it was a fairly low-wage job, and still figure out how to make housing work. That's becoming more and more difficult to do,” (Forbes, 2013). There are many reasons one could fall victim to homelessness; job loss, addiction, and/or mental illness, among others. According to the Asheville-Buncombe Homeless Initiative (ABHI), the population of homelessness has seen a steady increase, with the 18- to...
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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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...Homelessness HSM/240 March 14, 2010 CHRISTINE COX Introduction Think about all the obstacles which you had to overcome in your life time. What if you awoke one day and your bed was a box and you where not able to took a shower, had to wear the same cloths, had nothing to eat, and didn’t know what you where going to do to survive that day. Simple needs in which we often take for granted on a regular basis and the privileges in which many individuals in the United States disregard because we have everything at our disposal. There are many people living among us who don’t have the command essentials to survive, but many homeless individuals face these ordeals daily and their life’s as they knew it has been replaced with false hope and broken dreams. There are far too many of our citizens within this country we call home living on the streets without a place to call home. Wearing only the cloths on their backs; eating out of the trash, stealing, and at times prostitution, and all because they have no one to reach out or no place to turn for help. Homelessness The dilemma of homelessness is an issue in our society that is largely ignored. It seems as if the problem of homelessness is invisible to many and at times hardly noticed. When people do recognize individuals who are homeless they automatically view them as beggars who need to go get a job or someone who uses drugs and mentally ill people who are beyond help. However...
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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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...ignore. In an age that questions whose problem the homeless population is, controversies arise over who should be taking care of these people. Homelessness is not a new concept in America. Having been around for over a century, the past few decades has become exceptionally worse. Homelessness is not something that is easily defined. Alex K. Rich and Geraldine Wagner tell their readers that most who study the problem of homelessness define the issue as “those who are forced to sleep in places not designated for sleeping.” Jennifer Bringle defines the homeless as people who do not have a “fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence” (4). However defined, the fact that they do not have a permanent residence is only the beginning of the problem. Although there are many controversies today surrounding the problem of homelessness and whether the government is responsible or not, the nation as a whole should take responsibility and work collectively to strive for an end to the problem. To some the way to end homelessness means leaving the change up to the homeless themselves. Critics today focus on the idea that people are homeless because of their own actions. In Ted Gottfried’s book Homeless: Whose Problem Is It, Ronald Reagan is quoted as saying, “The homeless . . . are homeless, you might say, by choice” (50). Also quoted in Gottfried’s book, radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, says that the nation’s homelessness is “tied to a lack of personal responsibility and a...
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...The Homeless Plight Student Name Course/Professor Date The Homeless Plight Homelessness is on the rise. Homeless people can be seen sleeping in a variety of places such as city subways, terminals, stations, and the underground world of transportation. In the winter, the homeless may be sleeping on top of grates for the warm steam; fires may be burning from cylinders on street corners, under bridges, or in alley ways for warmth. In the summer, buses, subway cars, malls, and fountains are but a slight relief for those homeless until an authority figure moves the person(s) on. In small suburban areas, most of the homeless are hidden and out of view. The United States faces many social problems; however, homelessness is a major dilemma. To understanding the issue of homelessness from a sociologist point of view, different lenses need to be used. The sociological perspectives of functionalism, conflict structuralists, and symbolic interactionism, provide the best angles to assess homelessness in the United States as well as analyzing the efforts to resolve the homeless dilemma the nation faces. There are approximately two million homeless men, women, and children, and the numbers are increasing. For the second consecutive year, homeless families are on the rise (AHAR, 2009). Causes of this dilemma are vast and include hardships from loss of employment, illness, lack of affordable housing, poverty, and the current economy. The number of homeless is constantly changing. Researchers...
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...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 of veterans who are homeless and have to live...
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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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...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 individuals...
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