The Sociological Impact Of Homelessness And Functionalism

A good question to ask about homeless people therefore is how do preconceived notions and stereotypes about homeless people cause city governments and it’s citizenry to treat them as inferiors who need to be hidden? Sometimes in our society, the homeless are stereotyped as homeless because they are to lazy to get a job and work hard. It seems a common belief in America that the benefits that life comes with almost always come after hard work. However, according to Wilson Dizard and Kristyn Martin of Al Jazeera America a quarter of the homeless population have employment at the time of their homelessness. “Hardworking yet still homeless in today’s America” focusses on the story of Julia Cooley, a mother of one who commutes to work a total of five hours a day, yet is still homeless when the work day is over (1).

Homelessness has existed since the beginning of civilization, usually because a lot of people at the time are too poor to buy a house. As time goes on, the rate of homelessness rises as the population rises. Homelessness then was mostly caused by a family’s history of being homeless, drug abuse, mental disorders, and tyrannical leaders forcing his people into poverty. In modern times, several organizations are now trying to end homelessness by building cheaper housing projects more affordable to the poor and homeless shelters; these projects usually cost a fair amount of money.

Also many homeless people have a mental illness or disability making them unable to have a job. Even those with a job are unable to make a sustainable living off it. Wages are so low that one must work at least two jobs but with housing prices being so high, it makes find a place to live extremely hard. Washington and California have some of the highest minimum wage standards but even that is not a livable wage. We as a society have simplified a solution because many of us do not understand the complex issues that these circumstances

Summary: Jo Ensign Bowlder, in the article “Health problems of the homeless in America” suggest that homelessness during this decade has become a social and political issue. Bowlder indicates that the increase of population in homeless brings more health problems. They are more at risk than the general population. He adds on how primary care providers can help improve this situation. Primary care providers can advocate for the homeless.

There are over 2.2 million people incarcerated in the United States. Research by the International Centre for Prison Studies has shown that incarceration percentages increased by more than 500% over the last 40 years. As statistics show increases in incarceration, prison overcrowding has become more of an ever-growing situation in the United States. Prison overcrowding occurs when the rate of people incarcerated exceeds the rate of prisoners released. There are over 17 states that the prison population is higher than the capacity of the facilities designed to hold them.

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. The problem veteran homelessness is a nationwide doesn 't just include the homeless veteran population but also the mental and physical disabilities these people

Families that are poor or have a low income are more likely to commit crimes for the purpose of their own needs to survive. “It is a fact that neighborhoods where the poor are concentrated are more prone to high crime rates, and poor residents are the most common victims of crimes” (1). The best explanation for this is that poorer people have the same needs as a regular middle-class citizen. The poor citizens need certain things to help him or her live a healthy life, such as healthcare, food stamps, and more employment options. One may argue that healthcare is too expensive and that food stamps have been taken away from many people.

Homelessness can be seen in many different ways. In the functionalist perspective homelessness serves a purpose in society. The definition of the functionalist perspective is “a sociological approach

By adapting social roles that do not demand high levels of personal functioning, they have adjusted to periodic homelessness. For them trust is difficult to establish and maintain. Those working with the homeless need to understand this behavior is an adaption to endemic stress4. Finally, “chronically homeless”, those homeless for more than year, are least likely to be found in shelters, most likely to be assessed as mentally ill and do not use private or public charity4. Their support network tends to be limited to 1-2 other street people who have developed a routine for living on the street.

Homelessness is a complex social issue with a variety of economic and social factors such as poverty, lack of affordable housing, physical and mental health, addictions, and community/family breakdowns. Homelessness has increased its number by at least a 1% since last year, reached nearly 554,000 people who are living in harsh conditions. The government and its policies/bans only harm the homeless instead of being beneficial to them. With the “City wide bans on camping in public have increased [along with the]… city wide bans on sleeping in public…, sitting or lying down in particular places…[and,] bands on sleeping in vehicles have [all] increased”(Wiltz). Instead of

Homelessness in Toronto 1. What is the issues or problem that you are addressing? For this project, the problem I will be addressing is homelessness in Toronto. As of 2013, over 5000 Torontonians were homeless, and even more are at risk. In 2017, the number has certainly increased.

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.

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.

Eisenhower cites four main pieces of evidence. He first cites the unfortunately high number of fatalities and injuries on the current highways. Eisenhower argues that the more than thirty six thousand wounded and more than one million injured highway users put a high financial burden not only on the individual family who faces tragedy, but also on the nation. In Eisenhower 's report, he states, “But reliable estimates place the measurable economic cost of the highway accident toll to the Nation at more than $4.3 billion a year.” With this information, Eisenhower shows that with an updated highway system, accidents, and thus costs, could be cut considerably. Next, Eisenhower cites the poor condition of the current highways.

Housing affordability is a big challenge in the south bronx. Though the value of housing within the borough is high compared to wages, the supply of housing and quality of living conditions is low. Economic instability and housing challenges are a problem across the country, however in the Bronx and the South Bronx in particular, these issues exist at crisis levels, pushing an unacceptable number of families into homelessness While several Bronx residents board economic condition, black and Hispanic families square measure most in danger of turning into homeless. More than half (55.6%) of Bronx renters are price burdened—paying over half-hour of their income on housing expenses—and virtually common fraction (32.0%) are severely price burdened, with over half their financial gain going towards rental prices.For years, the town had been increasing each business and private taxes. Among alternative things, this semiconductor diode to a considerable reduction in producing within the South borough.