Jose Avitia
Celeste Sonnier
English 101
5/14/14
Helping the Homeless In the United States there are homeless people in every state and city. People look at homeless people as drug addicts, criminals, and as lazy people. Most of the homeless are regular people that had a tough time finding a job or lost their job. Majority of homeless people are just trying to find ways to earn some money. For a country that claims to be so strong and prosperous we have a little more than a million homeless people. American society is failing to support, and help the homeless. When people in the American society look at a homeless person they right away think that it’s by choice. Homeless people don’t want to be homeless, they want to work and earn money
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Instead the United States rather go start away somewhere else in the world because it doesn’t like the way people are being treated. Rather than trying to help other counties with their problems the Unites States should try and help itself. You have to look at yourself and make sure you’re okay before trying to help anyone else. Billions of dollars are spent on wars, wars that could have been avoided. The government isn’t spending their money the way they should. In the United States there are kids that go to sleep hungry; why is that happening if the United States is one of the strongest countries in the world. The people that pay taxes should choose where we as a nation spend our money, not just the top government officials. A lot of people will say that homeless people want to be homeless because they aren’t trying to get out of poverty. Well that’s not true, most homeless people want to get a job but can’t. To get a job you need to get interviewed and look clean, how is a homeless person supposed to be clean when living in the street. Our society makes it almost impossible for a homeless person to get a job. Others might say that the homeless aren’t using the programs available to them. That’s false because many of the programs that are available have limited positions open but not
In Social Problems, Anna Leon-Guerrero (2016) she states, “… The functional perspective, examines the functions or consequences of the structure of society. Functionalist use a macro perspective, focusing on how society maintains social order” (13). Society has created expectations on what is viewed as acceptable or unacceptable behavior and this can include criminal behavior. This is any deviation from the social norms that are agreed by the majority of the community and the violation of any existing laws that is passed by legislation. For an example, a single parent losses’ his or her job and are worried whether the rent is covered with his or her last paycheck or whether they will qualify for food stamps.
This is one of those problems that instead of finding solutions for, most people are “sweeping this problem under the rug” and finding “quick fixes”. The homeless population will continue to be victimized unless we change our attitude towards homeless people. We need to view them as fellow human beings who deserve a place in society. I think you made a great point by saying that “understanding the reasons behind them being homeless” because, in my opinion, that is one the biggest problems. We do not care enough or understand their situation; it is a lot simpler to blame poverty and homelessness on poor people.
A man on the street, sitting on the landing in front of a business, a woman on the side of the street begging for a job, meanwhile her family is sleeping in their car, an individual standing by the interstate hoping for a ride - all these images may represent many thoughts of homelessness. Stereotypes. Society places so many stereotypes for the homeless because individuals placed in these difficult situations do not measure up to society 's idea of success. The homeless population often faces stereotypes placed on them without people even knowing the circumstances or situations. Often no one knows how fortunate he or she is until something bad happens to put life into perspective.
There are more than 500,000 homeless people in America (Johnson). There are many reasons and causes for people to end up living this way, but the biggest cause is tragic life events, for like loss of loved ones, job loss, domestic violence, divorce, and family disputes. Other reasons for homelessness are depression, untreated mental illness, PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder), and physical disabilities ("Top Causes of Homelessness in America."). Many people see homelessness as a bad thing and an issue, but it does serve a purpose in society. Homelessness can be seen in many different ways.
Values Conflict in Homelessness The National Association of Social Workers (NASW, 2009) Code of Ethics is a guide to social workers’ practice by offering standards, values, and principles. The Code of Ethics is useful in facilitating the social workers’ decision-making process when he is presented with complicate ethical issues. Ethical issues arise with conflicting values, principles, and standards.
Essay on The Homeless Introduction to Human Resources Columbia college By Kawana Roberts The issue of contemporary homelessness has took a huge shift from the common perception of homeless people. I am witnessing a shift from the image of ‘homelessness’ being a physically dirty, pan handling, poor, uneducated individual who does not have a physical home for shelter. Initially, I failed to recognize that ‘homelessness’ can be a temporary state on can live in. Not all homeless people are homeless by “choice”, sometimes people are homeless by “force”.
According to Volunteers of America, over 670,000 americans are homeless and 48 million people go hungry every night .Also, 46.2 million americans live in poverty. These are large numbers and sadly these numbers keep increasing every year. According to Volunteers of America, areas with the highest amount of homeless people are Washington DC, Los Angeles California ,and New York City. According to Press Tv Documentary homelessness is a national problem. 50% of homeless
With the prevalence of media’s image of homeless people, everyday Americans have rationalized homeless people as lazy, unmotivated, and “grouchy” individuals. American television shows targeted to young children such as Sesame Street have incorporated stereotypical dialogue regarding homeless individuals such as “grouch”. Furthermore, politicians see homeless people as dead-end citizens that cannot be changed. Overall, the stereotypes regarding homeless people paint a picture of individuals as being hopeless, lazy, and incompetent members of society. The contributing factors for such stereotypes come from historical events that illustrate the origins of homelessness in America.
Homelessness is one the most ignored problems in the United States with citizen and politician. Homeless people are walked by and ignored. Nobody ever thinks that they will be homeless. Due to the economy, people live paycheck to paycheck making house payments very difficult. Most people will want to believe most homeless people are drug addicts or alcoholics, but most people will be surprise to know that it is no all true.
Homelessness is a struggle that most people don’t know, or that people ignore because they frown on homeless people. These people frown on homeless people because the homeless are often unshaven ruff looking people that had a bad turn in life, this life changing event that turned them into what some people frown upon. These people are frowned upon by so many but the people that frown upon them have no idea what their going through. Being homeless, a struggle known by too many in the United States, in fact there are estimated numbers of 633,782 people being homeless in just the United States alone. These people have found their self’s homeless for many different reasons like bad decisions, not a high enough paying job, or no job could be found,
You see people on the streets begging for money, and a lot of time people question why don’t they just get a job. It’s consistently thought that a simple solution to being homeless is getting a job. If you need money than go work for it. This is an oversimplification and makes it seem as if it’s easy to solve homelessness. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics found that about 4.1% of the population is unemployed.
With the increased use of housing-based assistance programs being created, there is a positive outlook for homeless looking for assistance getting back on their feet by acquiring affordable housing. The ability to apply and gain benefits through state and federal programs is helping to provide food and some financial assistance to the homeless population as well as a community outreach programs being deployed in cities all over the country. New opportunities for employment and training are available for those who are homeless and looking to get back into the workforce and get off the street. The road ahead for the homeless population is, of course, paved with struggles and detours, but with the continued efforts of our country, states and communities we can work together to aid in the reduction of homelessness with the continued efforts in creating and maintaining affordable housing programs, assistance programs, and workforce development
Homelessness is more than just the absence of a permanent address. It is a condition in which a large, growing percentage of people in the United States and most likely the rest of the world find themselves. It means being cut off from relatives, social groups, and community organizations and losing a sense of belonging to society (Brown&Casey, 2014). Homelessness in America is a long-standing and pervasive social issue. Health care, in particular, poses a challenge as homeless individuals struggle to obtain even the most basic care.
Homelessness is a significant complex societal problem. Many people think homelessness is an individual problem, but I think society has a large factor on why people become homeless. Individuals who are homeless are not lazy like most of society thinks. These people are struggling with societal problems such as living costs and mostly cannot support themselves financially. In my eyes, Homelessness is a factor of societal forces such as high cost of housing and living and also society having failed systems to support people who are stuck in these sorts of situations.
Some people wonder why homeless people have no jobs, cars, or homes. Here are a few reasons why homeless people are homeless. As we see in every Country, City, and State there are homeless people everywhere.