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. …show more content…
Granted experts cannot say that homelessness is a result of substance use or that people who are homeless use more than likely substances users, it is understood that there is a connection between homelessness and substance
Factors and barriers such as intravenous drug use, schizophrenia, history of unemployment, and various mood disorders that are common within the homeless community were looked at. Reasons for being homeless were looked at as well such as being evicted because of the ability not to pay rent, loss of employment, substance abuse, and various mental health issues. When it came to substance abuse, alcohol was the number one choice, followed by crack cocaine and then heroin. The study found that when it came to men and especially alcohol abuse, there had typically been some sort of trauma and /or violence on their
Homeless: Choice or Chance? Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle is a story of one unparalleled family who constantly is moving from one place to another. The family seeks shelter in abandoned houses in extremely slipshod conditions.
The article “The State of Homelessness in America” provides
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
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.
Some people may think that homelessness is a trouble because they assume that the individual is lazy and just wants life to be handed to them. Further assumptions are made about drugs causing individuals to become homeless. While that sometimes happens, many times it is the other way around. Individuals who have become homeless feel helpless and give into the release from their reality that drugs can give them (Thompson, 2011). People that do not consider factors outside of the individual are overlooking the breakdown within many institutions including school and the family that could lead an individual to become homeless.
Or they must use drugs, abuse alcohol or are criminals. Truth is there are many factors that can play roles in causing one to become homeless. Let us examine a few.
In brief, the use of drugs has multiple adverse effects, and is highly associated with the status of homelessness among
Many people believe that it is not easy for homeless people to restart their lives and have a job. Because homeless people may have drug or alcohol problems, which make it very difficult to have a long-term job. As a result, they cannot makes enough income to support themselves. Homelessness is a very serious complex issue to which there are no simple solutions. Moreover, the young adults have the highest risk of becoming homeless in today word (Paulsen, 2007).
It is stated that thirty-eight percent of homeless people abuse alcohol and twenty-six percent abuse drug. Some drug addicts and alcoholics become addicts when they are homeless already. However, some become homeless because of being dependent on drugs and alcohol most of their lives. Since they are dependent on drugs and alcohol their family will give up trying to help them, leaving them homeless and without any way of getting help. There are over forty-seven thousand American veterans who are homeless and seventy percent of those veterans are suffering from some form of mental illness.
In the United States homelessness has been a substantial problem for decades. The reason for homelessness is greatly debated especially
Introduction Every social, economic or political problem can influence society, the government and the country as a whole and homelessness is not an exception. Nowadays we can see more and more people without a permanent abode, sleeping on the streets, in hostels and in basements. The majority of them do not have a permanent job, they cannot usually buy clothes, food and other essential products and some of them loose lost contact with family. This term is usually considered synonymous with the word rootlessness, but in fact, it is a much more serious issue. This assignment will investigate the principal causes and consequences of the problem and also the methods of dealing with it.
Women and children are overwhelming affected by this, with one in two homeless women with children in homeless services are escaping domestic violence (Homelessness in Australia 2012). In addition to domestic violence the other frequent seen causes of homelessness are, lack of affordable housing, intergenerational poverty, unemployment, mental illnesses and young people exiting state care (Homelessnessaustralia.org.au, 2015). A common misconception is that mental health and drug addiction are the main circumstances for people being homeless(Roger, June 2015) .Although there is a link between the two circumstances most homeless individuals develop mental health issues and drug addiction after living on the streets for a long period of time (Homelessness in Australia 2012).
Consistent evidence has shown that homeless people have poor health outcomes, mostly have multiple health problems (Marmot & Wilkinson, 2006, p. 214). As one of the social excluded groups, homeless people not only suffer from the same health problems as unemployed people, also drug overdose and suicide (Marmot & Wilkinson, 2006, p. 214). As homelessness and drug injection are often coincide, contributing to increasing risks of infectious disease, like HIV and Hepatitis B and C (Raoult, Foucault & Brouqui, 2001). Some research reported that homeless people have six times higher mortality rates than general population, in which the particularly high causes of death are drug misuse, chronic disease, as well as suicide (Arnautovska, Sveticic & De Leo, 2014; Babidge, Buhrich & Butler, 2001).
Homelessness can affect anyone in any community at any time. People may think to become homeless that a person must be lazy, on drugs, or must be uneducated but that is not always true. There are a lot of factors that can make a person become homeless, such as divorce, domestic violence, lack of child support, and most commonly, losing your job . The factors for homelessness may change depending on the area and social class the person is in. For more wealthier and upper class people, becoming homeless is less common.