Youth Homelessness In America

Youth homelessness in Canada is not a new phenomenal, it has become more and more severe over the past 20 years. “One third of homeless individuals on the streets are under the age of 25”(Cino, Rose). It is a significant social justice issue in Canada. Within our community people are increasingly aware of the sight of youth sleeping in parks, asking for money and sitting on sidewalks. Youth homelessness is caused by tragic life occurrences such as abuse, illness or unemployment, while many falsely assume homelessness is a choice.

"Homelessness." The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science. Eds. W. Edward Craighead and Charles B. Nemeroff. Hoboken: Wiley, 2004. Credo Reference. Web. 26 Oct 2015. This article talks about homelessness. The homeless come from single men, single women, adolescents, and families with children. Causing of homelessness are included poverty, unemployment, or other economic conditions; but the most important causes of homelessness are extreme poverty so that they could not afford a house. There are around 750,000 Americans are homeless every night and close to 2 million are homeless in a year. The effects of homelessness

Among the many day to day problems we face in America from drug abuse, high crime rates, and unhealthy eating. Poverty is ranked as one of the top problems. In America today there’s more than 46.7 million people living in poverty. One major effect of poverty is homelessness. According to Homeaid America, as many as 3.5 Americans are homeless. Of these, more than 1 million children and on any given night, more 300,000 children are homeless. Theres many causes of homelessness: lost of family member, domestic violence, splits between spouses. “Other impairments, such as depression, untreated mental illness, post traumatic stress disorder, and physical disabilities are responsible for a large portion of the homeless” (HomeAid).

Do you know how many of the young adults under the age of 24 experience homelessness for more than a week? The figures are shockingly at around 55,000.

Homeless youth are always dealing with poor nutrition, victimization, substance use, and abuse. Unfortunately the services provided are very limited and cannot help a huge chunk of the homeless youth. Homeless youth experience more substance abuse and drug addiction than non-homeless youth, this causes them to be mentally unstable and unable to be a functioning member of society. There are many temporary services provided such as shelters, drop-ins, meal programs, literacy improvements, and counselling programs; although these are available and there to help the youth, they are all flawed in their own ways.

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.

The experience of homelessness inhibits the physical, emotional, cognitive, social, and behavioral development of children. Difficulties faced by homeless children include low self-esteem, lack of sleep and nutrition and feelings of shame and embarrassment. These children are exposed to the harsher realities of life. The stressors of being homeless can lead to many homeless children feeling depressed, causing detrimental health effects (Vostanis and Cumella, 1999). In general, homeless children consistently exhibit more health problems than housed poor children. Environmental factors contribute to homeless children’s poor health and they are at high risk for infectious disease. Homeless children are at greater risk for asthma and lead poisoning, often with more severe symptoms than housed children. Poor nutrition also contributes to homeless children’s poor health, causing increased rates of stunted growth and anemia. Despite these widespread health problems, homeless children generally lack access to consistent health care, and this lack of care can increase severity of illness. Homelessness also exposes infants to environmental factors that can endanger their health. Homeless children begin to demonstrate significant developmental delays after 18 months of age, which are believed to influence later behavioral and emotional problems. A quarter or more of homeless children have witnessed violence, and more than half have problems with anxiety and depression. Family homelessness may result in children’s separation from their parents—either because children are formally placed in foster care, or because parents leave children in the care of relatives and friends (Child Trends Data Bank, 2015). Homeless children worry about where they will sleep on a given night, and if they have a place to sleep, they are afraid of losing it. Older children worry about being separated from

The issue of homelessness in America is controversial because Americans have different views on the causes, conditions, and solutions to homelessness. Advocates for the homeless cite economic problems, a limited supply of affordable housing, and domestic violence as the main causes of homelessness, while opponents vehemently contend that homelessness in America is due solely to a lack of personal industry. Nevertheless opponents and advocates for the homeless are in agreement on the conditions of homelessness, but the solutions to homelessness are vigorously debated by both groups. Opponents cite personal responsibility (a steady job) as the main solution to homelessness, while advocates for the homeless cite a steady, well-paying job, and

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

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

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). Youth without shelter organization states, the City of Toronto have the largest homeless population in Canada. According to youth without shelter organization, 28% of homeless people in Toronto are youth. Therefore, training young workers is a solution that can be implement in order

Young Australians being homeless in 2009 were 62% females who were concerned about homeless and leaving home at the age between 13 to 17 years old 73%. The young people who were homeless and had other concerns in the age between 18 to 25 years was 65% of them likely to be 92% female (show in figure 1.1). (Website 3) The health issues with in young homeless individuals include Mental illness and Mental disorders. Evidence shows that depression, anxiety and post- traumatic stress disorders are experienced by individuals young homeless Australians.75% people with Mental illness first exhibit symptoms before the age of 25(brochure) . It can effect a person’s psychological, physical and emotional and spiritual wellbeing. (1st website) People that have mental illness are the people that tend to struggle to function is most aspects in their life. This may include securing and maintaining a home or a job may be extremely difficult to do (1st website). As an individuals it might happen once and make a full recovery afterwards. For others however, it may take a longer time to recover as their mental illness as it may have more sever impacts on the quality of

Every individual has a different background and it is our job as educators to take that into consideration as we educate our students. While reading the articles and watching the film, I realized that not all students are fortunate enough to have a stable household and some may not even have a roof over their heads at night. I was in awe by the amount of homeless youth that are out on the streets of Chicago every night. In the film, The Homestretch, it stated that 2,000-3,000 homeless youth were out on the streets every night. It also stated 19,000 students are registered as homeless within Chicago public schools. This made me realize the challenges they go through just in one single day. I began to realize that education is not their number one priority, it is surviving through the night. How can we ask students to do homework at night, when they don’t even have a place to go to?

We must value the importance of homelessness being a temporary state and acknowledge the redefinition of homelessness. As a society, we also must self-reflect and value our own standpoint in correlation to the research being done. Standpoint is not just determining or concluding the results to be one thing or another; but it is more complex and one must recognize that particular perspectives’ you won’t be able to fully understand unless you were in the same predicament or circumstances as the homeless. With all the research in the world, we do not understand how it feels to be in that situation, but based on empirical evidence, we can imagine how it

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