Homeless Vulnerability

While circumstances can vary, an individual’s first choice is rarely to choose homelessness due to the inability to afford housing or other unforeseen circumstances. The support of friends, family, and community programs/shelters are first suggestions when a person becomes displaced. When these suggestions become inadequate, living on the streets is the next favorable/affordable option. According to the National Alliance to End Homelessness, on a night in January of 2015, there were 564,708 people homeless in the United States (para 3). On a larger scale, more than one million people are homeless in America and of that population, 50 percent are chronically addicted to alcohol, drugs, or both (Substance abuse mental health, 2011 para 6). Research has brought more attention to risk factors that contribute to homelessness such as the epidemic of substance abuse.

There are many circumstances that lead to homelessness. Homelessness has an issue in today’s society and is largely ignored. Everyplace you see around out urban society, parks and streets it is likely that you will witness a homeless person struggling to survive. Over the years, homelessness in the United States has become a dangerous social problem because of the choice made by a person, unemployment and lack of education, and addiction. In Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls explains how her parents led them to live a homeless life. Homelessness is something that we as a community need to address and get rid of completely.

Homelessness, while widely acknowledged, continues to be an ever-prevalent issue within society. This urged me to take action. In order to compromise an accurate, precise claim, I needed to heavily research and analyze the various aspects of this issue -- specifically regarding the causes of homelessness, addressing the stereotypes and stigmas surrounding it, and by finding solutions at a personal, local, and national level. Initially, I intended to include pathos as a primary theme throughout my sources, but I eventually found logos as a more prevalent, more central theme that appeared throughout each source. Presented primarily through statistics, logos stands as the central theme.

A social issue is a form of conflict that influences members of a society and often extends into debates about what should be considered morally justifiable. Social issues such as: illicit drugs, gender inequality, age discrimination, education, and recidivism are all heavily discussed topics of debate. However, one social issue that affects several people on a day to day basis is homelessness. Homelessness is the condition of having no permanent dwelling such as a house or apartment. Homeless is a prevalent problem on a global scale that can be viewed and interpreted many ways. To understand homelessness, people must examine the issue using the sociological perspective, which is a perspective based on human behavior as well as person’s connection

Homelessness can be a detrimental experience as a result of being exposed to constant stress and unpredictable weather. It may lead to families and individuals having to find a temporary refuge in an unsafe environment, or obtain food from resources that can be harmful. Individuals and families caught in these predicaments frequently are ineptitude in areas of housing stability, managing money skills, coping skills, and support systems which would be significant in helping them modify hardships. As a result, a vast proportion of homeless families, individuals, and children have been exposed to a variety of traumatic occurrences such as childhood abuse, domestic violence, combat-related trauma, sexual assault, and the like.

Homelessness is a widespread problem in the Austin area. On any given day, there are more than 2,000 homeless men, women and children in Travis County. (ECHO) Homelessness a is complex, indiscriminate. Vulnerability to homelessness stems from unevenly distributed factors across many demographics. (Koegel, Melamid, Burnam, 1995) For example, family homelessness has been increasing in the United states in Recent years. Now, more schools and communities are challenged to serve students whose lives are touched by the uncertainty and instability that homelessness brings. (Miller, 2015) People are forced to live destitute without daily necessities like healthy or sanitary food, housing or substantial clothing. There are many efforts city wide to

As homelessness becomes a normalcy in the United States, there is less attention focused on the issue of child and family homelessness. As more families fall into financial hardships, affordable housing has become less attainable. Between 1981 and 1986, the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development was forced to reduce their budget from $33 billion to less than $10 billion. This represented an extreme decrease in the building and maintenance of housing, imposing more difficulties on hopeful individuals in need of affordable housing.

Being homeless is defined as an “individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence,” according to the legal definition of the McKinney-Vento Act and being under such definition is not a pleasant experience. In the most recent worldwide study by HomelessWorldCup, there were an estimated “100 million homeless worldwide and 1.5 billion people lacking adequate housing.” This is the truth that many people do not even want to attempt to fix, or even face. With the advances in technologies and the current progressive culture itself, there is no reason for the statistic to be that high. It is our moral duty as empathetic beings to solve and prevent further instances of homelessness, by giving the current homeless comfortable,

Research Question: Why does the United States fail to acknowledge the population of homeless veterans in the country?

Health disparities are common contributors to homelessness. A homeless person’s risk of being ill or injured increases between two and six times that of persons who are housed (Wright, 1990). The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) (2011) estimates 26% of homeless adults living in shelters are living with serious mental illness and nearly another 46% live with severe mental illness and/or substance use disorders (“The 2010 Annual, 2011). Homeless populations are at increased risk of; injury, hypothermia, dermatological problems, violence, and infectious diseases such as; hepatitis, tuberculosis, and HIV. (Kushel, Evans, Perry, Robertson, & Moss, 2003). The vulnerable population of homeless children

At any point in time, there has always been homelessness. Homelessness is defined as those without regular dwelling. A person without safe, secure and stable housing is essentially homeless. The US has certainly seen its share of homelessness, but not to the extent as other, poorer countries in other parts of the world. For this discussion, we will start with homelessness in the United States.

The issue of homelessness in America has been evident since the early 1600’s. Across the country men, women and children spend their nights on the streets not knowing when or if they will ever find a permanent home. States and federal officials or city councils have tried to alleviate or at least reduce the number of homeless over the last several decades at a city, state or national level but it continues to be an ongoing problem. There is a multitude of factors that account for the growing homeless population that affects each state in the country differently. Though there are many contributing factors that contribute to the amount of people living on the street at any given night in the U.S. An effective way to address the problem of homelessness in America is to continue creating affordable housing, maintaining assistance programs, and continue creating workforce

Looking at society as a whole with individual units that work together to make society function efficiently is the structural functionalism concept. Each unit has a part and is describe as institutions such as family, religion, education, politics, economy and inequality. Because structural functionalism looks at social structure and patterns of behavior it is able to create values for society. As well as, distinguish between visible and suppressed problems within the social structures that may need to be addressed. For instance, homelessness is indication of dysfunction in structural functionalism system.

Homelessness has been an issue that has been of concern in the United States since the beginning of industrialization, which brought forth hundreds upon thousands of people migrating from European countries in the early through the late 1800s. Most of them were families escaping political and religious oppressions from their native land while many others sought to attain financial prosperity as well. However, the influx of immigrants who were seeking new opportunities in developing regions of the United States created overcrowdings in towns resulting in the fewer dwelling for the men, women, and children, to inhabit. The deficiency of inadequate dwellings left many living on the streets and begging for money. Health-related illness began to rise along with poor safety regulation, all of which contributed to physical disabilities and deaths among the men who were the breadwinners. The effects crippled a majority of families financially even further, forcing single mothers to remove the oldest children of their homes and out into the streets because they could no longer afford to raise them.

There is a desperate situation that is taking place in our own backyard. In order for us not to feel guilty, there are some that will act as if they’ve not seen the problem or will try to alleviate the problem with a one-time quick fix. This desperate situation is the homeless population within our cities that seem to increase without any decrease. Yes, there is a preconception that a person who is homeless is some form of addict, alcoholic, mentally ill, or just maybe, have we ever thought that they are just down on their luck. Now days, when you drive anywhere in Visalia, you will encounter one or more people who are homeless. Whether on street corners or perched in the vicinity of Target or Walmart, you will see someone holding a sign that