Homelessness Research Paper

The subject of homelessness is not universally discussed in society because many people are either ignorant or unwilling to get involved to help. Although it is taboo, every day people are faced with or see homelessness. Many times driving under freeway passes or through highly populated cities, the homeless population can be seen everywhere. California has the densest homeless population in the United States, which is Skid Row in Los Angeles. In the state of California, the effects of homelessness continue to be an ongoing challenge for not only citizens but law enforcement and elected officials. There are many causes for homelessness, but the biggest reasons include mental illness and incarceration, family and financial struggles, and substance abuse.

The homeless veteran population is a concerning problem to the Veteran Affairs (VA). The population has been growing over many decades. To have a better understanding why there are so many veterans being homeless this paper will discuss many of the reasons why this is occurring. Veterans who have served in high combat can suffer from physical disabilities and mental illness that affect the normal daily tasks, but also who have not served can also suffer with the same issues. Suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PSTD), causes veterans to have a hard time transitioning back to civilian life after the military.

I chose this topic because there seems to be a growing epidemic of homeless veterans in our country. This is very sad when you think of how those men and women voluntarily signed up to serve. There are so many Americans that live by the slogan “Land of the Free because of the Brave” yet, you have so many brave men and women eating out of garbage cans and sleeping under bridges. According to the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans there are several factors that contributed to displacement of veterans such as shortage of affordable housing, low income, and inadequately healthcare. As well as the lack of family and social support not to mention the returning home wounded veterans suffering with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression

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.

One of the main causes of homeless veterans is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD. “ is a medical problem where

Veterans and our soldiers are coming home from war or getting out of the military and when they get home they can’t afford rent or they have a mental disease from war. Homeless veterans tend to experience homelessness longer than non-veteran homeless. This should not be happening to our soldiers. This is very undesirable for our troops to come home and becoming homeless. They fight for our freedom and our rights and we repay them by becoming homeless.

Veteran Homelessness On any given night, approximately 49,000 American veterans are homeless, men and women that served our country and fought for our freedom (Unique Issues). Most are suffering from traumatic brain injuries, physical disabilities, and some are over the age of 50 (Unique Issues). Veteran homelessness continues to be a persistent problem. A system in which increased funding goes to housing and providing care to veterans would drastically help these peoples if not homelessness will continue to grow because of the United States’ involvement in the Middle East.

Homelessness ,an American Problem] [Homelessness is serious problem that America has come to face. Millions of people including families ,children, elder, babies , veterans live day after day without water ,food or a roof over their heads. The number of homeless, families with children and elder has considerably over the past decade or so. They are together the fast, growing portion of the homeless population. There are together almost 40% of all people who are homeless.

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

Apart from those who are already homeless, around 1.4 million more veterans are at risk of homelessness because of lacking support networks, poverty and miserable living conditions in substandard or overcrowded housing. The situation is compounded by the difficulty to transfer some of the military training and occupations to civilian workforce (NCHV, 2015). This places some of the veterans at a disadvantage in the search of employment in the competitive job

Many people around the world are homeless and majority of them are homeless veterans that served in wars like the vietnam war. The age range for veterans are usually in their 50 and 60’s and the numbers are increasing rapidly. In 2016 january ,communities in america identified 39,471 homeless veterans during the point in time. Veterans homelessness should be because and should be honored because of what they do for our country and they are heroes.

The problem of homelessness in the U.S.A. has to primary sociological theories that deal with homelessness. The first is the Conflict theory, which states that there are two opposing groups. In this case the homeless, and the wealthy. The wealthy use their power to exploit the homeless. This does imply that the wealthy are directly linked, however there is a little more nuance to the situation. For one there is a very large income gap, the wealthy have their income increase continuously, whereas the average pay for a minimum wage job can’t even support one person living alone. An example would be Sydney and her son Peter, she wasn’t paid enough by her job in Texas to ever save money, so when she lost her job, she lost her house. Not to mention

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.

Is it the stresses of war and inadequate job training? In addition, could it be untreated PTSD that keeps veterans from being productive once back in civilian life, thus causing the risk of homelessness? PTSD is one of the leading problems leading to homelessness among our veterans. As a veteran, myself, I understand the day to day struggles to come to grips with some things that were experienced as a soldier. For example, seeing fellow soldiers shot or killed, or the people you’re there to help turn on you, it’s a living nightmare.

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.