Stereotypes Of Homeless People

Apathy. Although there are circumstances that cause people to be homeless such as the loss of a job or addiction, the main reason is that citizens feel apathetic towards the homeless. Seeing homeless people on the streets has become so common that people are not impacted by the hardships a homeless person is clearly facing. Beggars have become invisible and it is nearly impossible for the homeless to regain a life of normalcy without the help of others. It is typically taught that when you see a homeless person you should ignore them, walk away, or lock your doors if you are in a car. This placement of fear has caused generations of people to be formed that pay no attention to those struggling to survive. Because of how taboo and stigmatized

Homelessness in New York City has undoubtedly changed tremendously since the 1990’s. In 2015 today it is no secret that there is a huge homelessness crisis in New York City. We see them on most if not every train ride either asking for money, food or in a corner using the rain as a form of shelter. Often time’s people look down upon homeless people and think they all have mental or drug issues or didn't work hard enough to make it on this place where people come to so called have a better life. Although it might be true that these homeless people might acquire these issues it is imperative for us to understand how to go to the positions they are in today. In the 1990’s although homelessness did exist it wasn't as extreme as it is today. We might be surprised to know that certain people that we see working the low paying jobs or even certain students at school might be homeless.

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.

A stereotype is defined: “To believe unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” Another definition is: “As a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing.” There are numerous types of stereotypes based on dress, culture, sex, location, and race characteristics. They are oftentimes discriminatory in judgement. Even though, some stereotypes may have some truth to them, it is inexcusable to state all people in a specific area or similar characteristics are the same. When comparing stereotypes, it is easy to make judgements based on geographic locations and looks of some.

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. Veterans with PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) have a high risk of becoming homeless. Homelessness is cause by drug and alcohol dependencies, the economy and veterans who suffers from PTSD or other forms of mental illness.

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

Stereotypes are a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a group of people as opposed to misconceptions which are views or opinion that is incorrect because it is based on faulty information. The two terms are relatively coined together, but it is crucial to note that stereotypes are exaggerated truths whereas misconceptions are untruths. The false assumptions misrepresent homeless people and paint a poor image of them. However, in some cases, these stereotypes aren’t exaggerated at all, rather they are accurate depictions of certain homeless people. Personal interviews with the homeless reveal the struggles of living alone. The cause of homelessness isn’t laziness; being homeless requires a lot of stress into thinking about how to survive each day. Most homeless people are not criminals and many of those who are technically criminals have committed property crimes in order to live. In addition, the top reasons of homelessness are lack of affordable housing, lack of a living wage, and medical bankruptcy, but none of these reasons are related to choice. These misconceptions and stereotypes are dangerous to society since they seriously interfere with attempts to help those that are in need and

Vulnerability, the propensity to harm, is caused by an interaction flanked by the obtainable resources to persons and communities as well as the life problems they encounter. However, vulnerability develops from developmental challenges, individual incapacities, underprivileged social status, insufficiency of interpersonal systems and supports, tainted neighborhoods and settings, and the multifaceted contacts of these aspects over the life course. However, the priority given to unreliable vulnerabilities/their neglect reflects social values. Vulnerable group include racial and ethnic minority, uninsured, underinsured, low-income children, frail older adults, mentally disabled, and homeless among others (Clapham & Clapham, David, 2015).

When people think of others who are poor and less fortunate, they assume that it is people who are living on the street, don’t have a family, and are classified within the homeless population. What they don’t recognize is that is not completely wrong or correct because it is known that not all homeless people live on the streets or don’t have family to support them financially and more. The first time I recognized this was when I volunteered at the Our Daily Bread Employment Center in Baltimore. After observing and interacting with some of the families and individuals who attend the hot meal program year round, I not only recognized that most of the people came from stable homes and have jobs but also that 1 out of 10 people were homeless by

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. Because of these issues, society should develop better strategies to help these people in need to eliminate the growing poverty level through the world. These strategies could include

“Many people look down on the homeless, because they feel the homeless are in that situation because of bad choices they made,” Visser said. “Some believe, all they have to do is get a job and pull themselvesatogether.”

At one point in everyone's life, they’ve either stereotyped, or had misconceptions towards a group of people. Stereotypes have been used to profile different groups of people without really knowing the truths that they have. People stereotype different groups of people either because they won't except the truth about how they really, or because they’ve seen movies, tv shows, etc. about how they perceive that group as and they end up believing it. Some stereotypes may be good and some may be offensive or just bad in general. Misconceptions aren't used as much as stereotypes, they give information about a person or group of people that is not true and of course, people believe them. Misconception can also be developed

Negative stereotypes have been created by us, as a society, we have allowed ourselves to live with this misconceptions that impact all of us in a certain way. We have contributed to those beliefs that say that social status, income class and ethnicity define our identity. In fact, we have been and also have prejudged others at a certain point in our lives, we prejudge people we don’t know and also the ones we think we know like our own family members.

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.

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.