Political dimensions of the urban policy dilemma:
The political dilemma is whether the government should take responsibility for the lack of affordable housing, and to what extent the government should intervene in social conflicts. There is the conservative argument that homelessness is inevitable, and that government should be more hands off. For instance, the homeless are heavily dependent on welfare, and on governmental institutions, which is a burden for taxpayers that have no relationship to the homeless population. Kingdon makes a compelling argument of why some topics never make to the policy agenda, and questions the politics behind who has the most authority to get legislations through the floor. Homelessness is not an easy topic to get to the agenda because it does not lead to profit. Policy dimensions of the urban policy dilemma:
The policy dilemma about homelessness and directing funds for affordable housing are not well taken by decision makers because these actions require a tremendous investment from the government. In order to solve homelessness, the federal
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Its democratic legitimacy defended (procedurally and or substantively): Housing the homeless is a redistributive policy that aims at providing the basic needs of survival, and ensuring that everyone has access to housing. Procedurally, providing housing to the homeless is essential to our democracy, and to further the nation. The process of getting redistributive policies in the congress is almost impossible due to the high level of polarization. Special Interests, lobbyists and corporations do not favor redistributive policies. It is quite difficult to direct funding towards housing subsidies, and to increase resources for the
If you had been a reformer during this era (remember planning as a profession did not yet exist), what type of progressive era urban reform would you adopt and implement? Why? Would it engage with the good government movement or not? Why? What lessons, if any, would your response then provide for your planning practice today?
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.
The article “The State of Homelessness in America” provides
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).
Homelessness is a product of social inequalities. Karl Marx stated that the capitalist society produces two prominent classes which are in conflict with each other, bourgeoisie and proletariats. The bourgeoisie are the oppressors who own the means of production and the proletariats are the oppressed workers who labor for the bourgeoisie. Capitalism is distinguished not by privilege but instead by individuality of property ownership and that those who create the conditions of the oppressed group express this power in the form of laws that function to serve the bourgeoisie’s interests (Marx, 2004, p.129).
Should We Help The Homeless? As once written by Andrew Carnegie, “The problem of our age is the proper administration of wealth, so that the ties of brotherhood may still bind together the rich and poor in harmonious relationship” (Carnegie) Homelessness has been around for centuries, just like the debate over Americans helping the homeless or letting them fend for themselves. There are many aspects must which should be considered in the argument of whether we, the American people and higher class, should help them or not; such as the ethical values of the situation from both the poor and those involved in helping, the cultural and social causes, and effects on their lives.
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.
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.
In the United States homelessness has been a substantial problem for decades. The reason for homelessness is greatly debated especially
The solution targets the chronically homeless, who cost the health-care and social service systems the most money. The program of providing apartments to the chronically homeless is selective due to limited money, but requirements must be met to be eligible. The program creates dependency under supervision to get people back on their feet. Gladwell assesses the problem by conducting marginal analysis to weigh the cost and benefits. The benefit of spending less money to solve the problem outweighs the opportunity cost of serving all the homeless with a shelters and soup kitchens.
The government had to subsidize housing projects using taxpayer’s money. Thus, maintaining status quo is inefficient and against the Constitutional right of all Americans to have better housing facilities. 2. Intensify enforcement of the housing
Area of Conflict Homelessness can be understood in the perspective of conflict theory, which holds that capitalism is one the main reason for homelessness. “Capitalism is a social system based on the recognition of individual rights, including property rights, in which all property is privately owned” (Ayn Rand). There are many reasons why a person becomes homeless, an increasing number become homeless each year, with up to 5,000 people becoming homeless every year. Generally the experiences that lead to homelessness are determined by poverty and structural inequality.
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.
Rapid re-housing provides short-term rental assistance and services. The goals are to help people obtain housing quickly, increase self-sufficiency and stay housed (EndingHomelessness.org). Housing is key to ending homelessness, there is simply not enough affordable housing and without this housing many homeless are likely to continue to cycle in and out of
John Curry (2011) looks at the Homeless Agency that was set up under the Integrated Strategy. This was used to plan and coordinate services in Dublin as the largest group of homeless people was in Dublin. According to Curry (2011) in a 2006 review, fifteen of twenty four of the strategies from the Integrated Strategy were thought to have “been fully or significantly progressed.” It believed that homelessness policy had improved greatly from this in an array of fields and the Homelessness agency had helped combat homeliness in Dublin greatly. Curry shows that the